Mumbaikars were in for a different kind of immersive theatre experience last week. ‘Stand on the Street’, a play with untold stories of street food vendors had its first performance in Mumbai after around 52 shows in Goa and Bangalore. The play recreates life moments of various street vendors framing the street and the audience were treated to the street food too.Director Aruna Ganesh and her team of actors Anjana Balaji and Aditya Garg, who play all the 10 characters in the play went on a food trail across India to meet 250 street food vendors and came back with interesting stories. Says Aruna, “The play is inspired by the lives of street food vendors and we visited different parts of India and spoke to street food vendors to present there stories while also serving food.”

What was different was that the audience had to stand all the time – for around 75 minutes of the show and also move around the four vendors as the story progressed. Calling it a 360 degree experience Aruna informs, “As the audience moves from one set to another for the four stories they will encounter four unique characters and experience the food served by that character. So there is the jhal muri (a puffed rice snack) from Kolkatta, chana sundal from Chennai, momos from Delhi’s street food, litti chokha (stuffed whole wheat dough balls) from Bihar and paan from Varanasi. Despite there being four different stories, the theme of street food interwoven with a connect.”

The audience reaction has been very encouraging says Aruna, “They experience what the street vendor goes through as he stands there the entire day from morning to mid-night. People have shared with us how they felt entering the world of street food vendors which they would have otherwise not been able to do. Many have told us that they will never look at a street food vendor the same way as they did earlier.”