JAM

by Annie Zaidi

Student’s name: Shashvat M kapadia

Year: MPA DRAMA SEMESTER-1
About Playwright:
Annie Zaidi (born 1978) is an English-language writer from India. Her
novel, Prelude to a Riot, won the Tata Literature Live Book of the Year 2020. In
2019, she won The Nine Dots Prize for her work Bread, Cement, Cactus and in
2018 she won The Hindu Playwright Award for her play, Untitled-1. Her non-
fiction debut, a collection of essays, Known Turf: Bantering with Bandits and
Other True Tales, was short-listed for the Vodafone Crossword Book Award in
2010. She also writes poetry (Crush, 2007), short stories (The Good Indian Girl,
2011 and Love Story # 1 To 14, 2012), plays (Jam, Jaal etcetera) and has written a
novella.Zaidi was born in Allahabad and raised in Rajasthan. She and her older
brother were raised by their mother Yasmin Zaidi, who became a school teacher
and principal. Her mother wrote poetry and her grandfather was recognized for his
contributions to Urdu literature with a national award. Her maternal grandfather
is Padma Shri laureate Urdu writer and scholar Ali Jawad Zaidi. Zaidi has said that
as a child, she used time recuperating from a leg fracture to read 200 books. Zaidi
obtained her B.A. degree from Sophia College in Ajmer. during her time there, she
wrote plays for the college cultural festivals and wrote poetry. After her
graduation, she joined the journalism course at Xavier Institute of Communications
in Mumbai.Annie's play "Untitled-1" won The Hindu Playwright Award 2018. Her
play Jaal opened at Prithvi Theatre in January 2012 as part of Writers Bloc: 3, a
drama festival in Mumbai. Another play, So Many Socks (English), opened at the
Prithvi Theatre in September 2012. It was nominated in several categories,
including best script, for the META awards. The play was directed by Quasar
Padamsee.Her first full-length script, Name, Place, Animal, Thing, was shortlisted
for The Hindu Metroplus Playwright Award, 2009. A radio play, Jam, was the
regional (South Asia) winner for the BBC's International Playwriting Competition
2011. Zaidi also directed short movies, such as Ek red colour ki love story, and Ek
Bahut Chhoti si Love Story. In 2016, she directed the short film Decibel that was
part of Shor Se Shuruaat, an omnibus of seven short films. She was mentored by
film-maker Sriram Raghavan during the making of the movie.
About play:
The play narrates the tale of two old friends overcoming their animosity
while stuck in a traffic jam. The play begins from when they are headed
back home and get stuck in a traffic jam. Since they are meeting after a
decade, there is a notion that something has transpired in the past which
sort of creates discomfort between the two. As the play travels ahead,
different aspects of thoughts by the two characters comes out. The play
narrates two types of women’s thoughts. Married and working while
another is Married and housewife.

Characters:

Surekha:
She is in early thirties. Married and upper middle class working woman.
She is a manager. Surekha has temper issues. She gets furious in
seconds. She believes in standing on one’s own feet.

Bina:
She is also in early thirties. Married and mother of two kids. She is
upper class woman. Bina isn’t a brave type person. She is joyful person
but she has never done anything on her own.
Selection of a Script and Director’s Interpretation:
I went through plenty of scripts such as still and still moving, wrong number, they
went Ahead, An unexpected Man, and deathwatch. But somehow I couldn’t
manage to direct and act in my own production due to load of other acting
opportunities. I read the script Jam, during second lockdown and this script had
different impression in my mind. Two women stuck in traffic jam and their
conversations throughout the play. I was impressed by the playwright’s vision and
experiment. When the time came to decide the script, I finally decided to go after
Jam. There are plenty of reasons. First as I mentioned that I had load of other
acting opportunities. Second, I always like to do experiments on stage, whether it
is direction or acting. Choosing the women dominant script also made my thoughts
and notions more clear about women. It had forced me to look deeper into how
women think and feel and what they go through. The last reason is how two
women can hold a play without having a stage full of set, different types of light
and complex compositions. The play is more near to reality than other plays. This
play doesn’t have over dramatic lines, dance sequence or fight scenes. Neither
characters are loud and shallow. Nor this play delivers any deep philosophical
message or interpretation or metaphors. Hence, I chose this script to show how
normal people ( here two women) go through their lives and what happens when
they meet after ten years of huge gap and what is hidden during these ten years.
Another thing I really liked about this script is that both women think that the other
one is having beautiful and complete life. They both chasing something the other
have. But they think their life is miserable. But they don’t end up getting those
things they want. And it is harsh reality. I really want to show this on through this
play what also life is. “Jam” here in the play is not just for a traffic jam but also the
jam of their thoughts and their animosity for each other. Thoughts about their life,
about their desires about their relations comes out during the play. While directing
the play, I got to learn plenty of things related women psychology and how they
suppress things and how they express things. I worked on characters thoughts and
their psychology with actors to help them perform more genuinely. Pauses played
huge role in the play. I added plenty of pauses throughout the rehearsals which are
not included in script. Some of them are awkward pauses, some of them are
silences which shows nothing is happening. Some pauses are there to build up the
tension and emotions. Because I knew this play was written as radio play. Voice
becomes major portion and through express with voice needs more attention on
one’s own thought and the psychology. The play hardly has hardly walking
movements. So every pause and every lines becomes major because they are there
on the car. Which creates monotony if actors don’t make them interesting.

Set Design
Designed by Shivani Pandey

Earlier ideas of what set should look like are below:

This is the first rough idea we had about set. Discussed with the director, we made a set where we had
two cubes for seats. One rectangle height placed horizontally to make a dashboard. Two square heights
placed one over the other to show upper portion of a car.
This was the second idea where we removed everything that was before cubes. That was only making
things look unnatural. But these cubes were not comfortable for longer sitting.

Then finally, I decided to keep two chairs only. and one steering wheel.
Picture of a rehearsals where actors sitting on chairs assuming sitting in a car.

With recommendation of a director, we placed a rectangle height placed above chairs to get dashboard
feel and also to hide unnecessary leg movements and lower body parts.
Music Design

Designed by Shashvat Kapadia

Music plays vital role in this play because the sound of Traffic, Radio jockey and his songs, car sounds
makes the atmosphere more alive. At some point it moves the plot. I started researching traffic sounds. I
really wanted something which has constant car honks and moving traffic also. I also recorded real
traffic sound by being in traffic for fifteen minutes. To create RJ’s voice and radio channel, I read
dialogues and understood the meaning. I recorded RJ sound by myself. Also I did listen some of radio
channels and how the music fades in and how RJ reacts and talks with people.

Light Design:

Designed by Bhoomi Chandpa

Three spot lights are used for visibility and mood of a play. Two spot lights are set at first grid with
yellow colors. And third spot light from the front with variety of colours as play progresses.

Costumes design

Designed by Riddhi Vyas

Surekha is working class woman. She is gutsy and bold. Her attire has to show how confident and
dominating she is.

Beena, married and mother of two kids. But she is funny and joyful and energetic. Even though she’s
mother of two yet she should look more younger and attractive than Surekha.
Rehearsals stills: we tried to rehearse on different places. Mostly offstage to try different environments
for actors.