'We must bring the audience into play, not keep them away'

What drew you to this particular text, and why do you think its themes remain relevant even today?

- Mitali

I first read The Horse in the early 1980s, a period when East European plays by playwrights such as Vaclav Havel and Slawomir Mrozek were being performed in translation by theatre companies in Mumbai. I was struck by two things about the play—the use of allegory to depict contemporary times, and the sharp humour and satire to hold a mirror to the historical patterns authoritarian rule plays out, both chilling and absurd.

With more than 1,000 hours of rehearsal and a 250-member crew, The Horse is a large-scale production. What were some of the biggest creative and logistical challenges in staging it?