There is much, though nothing seemingly out of the ordinary, that is happening at Grand Life apartments in Chennai. A mother eagerly awaits her daughter’s annual visit from abroad, a new resident arrives from overseas, nursing a heartbreak while settling into a rented apartment, and elsewhere, another tenant dreads entering the arranged-marriage market. All the while the looming threat of redevelopment hangs over the community. 

The apartment, its tenants and the very charming city of Chennai from Hema Sukumar’s 2023 novel Minor Disturbances At Grand Life Apartments, will now come alive onstage. The Madras Players will present an original stage adaptation by Nikhila Kesavan, who is directing the play as well. 

Nikhila recalls having very serendipitously discovered the novel a year ago, when she chanced upon a podcast featuring Hema. “When I read the blurb of the book, I was instantly drawn to the fact that it was set in Chennai. While we have staged English translations of Tamil plays, this novel felt special. Every character seemed to be up against a challenge or a conflict that was relatable, and I enjoyed the humour in the book as well,” she says. 

In the past, Nikhila has adapted four novels for the stage including Jhumpa Lahiri’s A Temporary Matter, and Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone. With Minor Disturbances At Grand Life Apartments being a novel that is heavy on commentary and descriptions, she says it was important for her to go with the rhythm of the book while working on the stage adaptation. ”If the novel had short scenes, I ensured we retained these for the stage. I have kept the adaptation simple, and did not need to employ any complicated techniques or resort to multiple monologues,” she explains. 

The cast comprises a mix of Madras Players veterans and emerging talent; Anu Bhaskararaman, Anuradha Rao, Bhavya Balantrapu, Faheem Moosa, Janaki Srinivasan, Juni Srinivasan, Smrithi Parameswar and Venkataraghavan play characters who navigate love, familial ties, loneliness, and more, as they come to terms with what the idea of home is. 

To bring alive an apartment complex on the stage at Museum Theatre, Nikhila says they worked on coming up with a minimalistic set that can take on the distinctly different spaces inhabited by the tenants. “The play is a quiet one, with more of a focus on conversation. For us, it was imperative to bring about the feeling of home and belonging, and not take away from this through an elaborate stage set-up,” she adds. 

Minor Disturbances At Grand Life Apartments will be staged at the Museum Theatre, Egmore, on June 26, 27 and 28 at 7.15pm. Tickets priced from ₹300 onwards at mdnd.in