Mondays Are Best For Flying Out Of Windows

This play is inspired by the stories of Daniil Kharms (1905-1942), an early Soviet era absurdist poet, writer and dramatist. Kharms was often incarcerated by the Stalinist regime for his unconventional and rebellious ways. He is said to have starved to an anonymous death in the psychiatric ward of a Soviet hospital after being arrested in 1942.

Kharms’ stories defy easy characterization – they may start humorously but quickly turn dark, many feature random acts of violence (In ‘The Plummeting Old Women’, a succession of old women fall out of a window and get smashed to pieces) and most are so brief that they end before they can even begin. Or as Kharms himself says, ‘I am interested only in pure nonsense, only in that which has no practical meaning. I am interested in life only in its absurd manifestation. I find heroics, pathos, moralizing, all that is hygienic and tasteful, abhorrent… both as words and as feelings.’ That’s it. More or less.

Thanks to Serendipity Arts Festival and Atul Kumar for giving us the initial momentum by commissioning this piece, Koumarane Valavane and Indianostrum Theatre, Ashwini, Karthikeyan and Adishakti for generously giving us space in Pondicherry, and Aditi, Cordis, Paarvathi, Pranav, Richa and Sushmita for being a supportive yet critical audience.