The Valley
of Love
The performance titled ‘Love in the Time of Corona’ emerged from the workshop experiences of the Aagaaz Theatre Trust on the theme of ‘Love’. It explores the personal space of young residents of Nizamuddin Basti, as they adapted to their new lives and found a new depth and meaning to Love once again.
Interspersed with this narrative is the voice of Poet Amir Khusrau, who celebrates his love for his spiritual mentor, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, scholar and saint of the Chishti Order, as he echoes Attar’s words: “To love truly a man must forget about himself, be he ascetic or libertine.”
Amir Khusrau is brought to life by actor, producer, director and singer, Dilip Shankar who explore the coexistence between the Mystic and the Modern concept of Love. We end the play with a quote from Kabir Das, the 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint.
A humble weaver by profession, Kabir is deeply critical of all organized religion, as he urges people to look within and consider all human beings as manifestation of God’s living forms. He stresses on dropping one’s Ego, in complete surrender to the Formless One, as our Inner Self dissolves into the Universe.
“Do lovers regard their lives? The lover sets fire to all hope of harvest, he puts the blade to his neck, he pierces his body. With love comes sorrow and the heart’s blood. Love loves the difficult things.” – Fariduddin Attar
The Work
The Valley of Love dips into the Sufi Heart of complete surrender to the Divine – ‘Oneness with the Supreme’, the unconditional Love of the seeker yearning for complete Union..
The bustling, narrow lanes of Nizamuddin, Delhi, lead to the consecrated ground of the Sufi Dargah or shrine of Scholar and Saint of the Chishti Order, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, where energetic Sufi devotional music performances (qawwalis) are still held at sunset, every Thursday.
Here we meet the Aagaaz Theatre Trust that works with marginalized youth of the Nizamuddin ‘Basti’ (community). An Urdu word that means ‘beginnings’, Aagaaz takes theatre to spaces beyond the realm of the ‘privileged’ community, to build a different narrative of the city. At its core are young adults from this community, who are growing into arts practitioners, theatre makers, and facilitators.
The performance titled 'Love in Times of Corona is borne out of the workshop experiences of the repertory.
Love in the Time of Corona The Valley of Love
The Process
The Aagaaz repertory members respond to the theme of 'Love' very warmly and openly. As one of the members note, the very meaning of love has altered for them in this time - moving from something between people to a love for a space, a diary, a pen…
These young people have experienced a sense of isolation and alienation from the rest of the city during the lockdown, and have moving stories to offer, as we transit into a space of Introspection & Reflection, as we travel through the Valley of Love.
The performance created is an amalgamation of poetry, singing, music and theatre. The pandemic signaled the arrival of several changes among the residents of this community. The members of the repertory explore the journey that inadvertently took place because of the lockdown.
The Process Video The Valley of Love
The Gallery
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