Ekatha brings out a new fantasy thriller play, Maya, for the Chennai audience

Somewhere inside an ancestral house in Kerala, beneath the shade of a sacred grove, a dead girl is waiting to unravel the mystery behind her death. Her name is Maya. Her cousin Anjali brings a young professor to the ancestral home for a festival of snake worship. The professor, who researches Kerala’s folk culture, arrives looking for ritual and folklore. Instead, he encounters Maya’s spirit.

Maya is the latest production of the theatre group Ekatha, an English-language fantasy thriller, directed by KP Rajeev. The play moves through romance, crime, myth, and superstition as the professor tries to understand what happened to Maya. Rajeev says the original spark for the play came from Vaikom Muhammad Basheer’s short story ‘Neelavelicham’, which was later made into the films ‘Bhargavi Nilayam’ (1964) and ‘Neelavelicham’ (2023). “A thriller around a spirit who is sharing its story, and I know the possibility of building a thriller around that. There are elements of fantasy, romance, and mystery. So, it is an out-and-out entertainment.” But Maya is not an adaptation of Basheer’s story. Rajeev emphasises that distinction.

The play enters the world of the nagakaavu, the sacred groves where snakes are worshipped. Rajeev describes the tradition through its music, drawings, and rituals. In Kerala, he says, the custodians of these sacred groves are the Pulluvas, a community associated with a distinctive musical tradition called Pulluvan paattu.

The ritual includes the use of Pulluvan kudam and Puluvan veena, instruments used to create the atmosphere for the Naga puja. The kalam is an intricate, colourful drawing of a naga made with organic materials. The ritual can culminate in Nagam Thullal, when women enter a trance and move across the drawn kalam.

Rajeev says, “The Nagam Paattu is a very intense experience. There’s the kind of music they play and all the instruments they use. There are ladies who get into a trance in the process. And they sit on this kalam and do a very frantic movement to the tune that is being played.”

That ritual forms the physical and spiritual landscape of Maya. On stage, the audience will see the kalam being enacted, alongside digital backdrops and elaborate sets. The play will also examine the beliefs surrounding the sacred grove from two directions.

“We talk about the scientific aspect behind the kaavu, why it was created, why it was preserved. Also, the superstition and the myth part of the folklore, too. It examines all that and uses perspectives both from a believer standpoint as well as from a scientific standpoint,” says the director.

The cast brings together professional and amateur performers, including Tamil and Malayalam actors, while the play itself is in simple English. For Rajeev, the aim is to let the audience enter the world of the kaavu.

Proceeds support Shanthi Bhavan’s Mission 100, which aims to expand the home’s capacity from about 50 residents to 100. Shanthi Bhavan is a home run out of Redhills. Since 1988, it has provided free shelter, food, and care to elders.

Maya will be staged on September 13, from 6.00 pm to 7.30 pm at Museum Theatre, Egmore.

To book a ticket, visit https://kynhood.com/event/6a86a5e0a8a51a5ad84795b6