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Arjun Raina

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Storytelling
Guest performance

Author and performer: Arjun Raina

It is night in a modern suburb of New Delhi India: the young Indian Ashok works at a call centre, phoning people in the U.S. who have overdrawn their credit card accounts. On the job, he calls himself John and speaks American-accented English. That night in late summer 2001, he talks to Elizabeth, whose daughter uses her mother’s credit card. Since 11 September, the woman has not heard from her New York-based daughter, who after a violent quarrel had broken off all contacts with her parents. Ashok and the credit card thus become Elizabeth’s only link to her daughter. Beyond the rules of business, a subtle phone relationship develops between fake “John” and desperate Elizabeth. In his own life, Ashok is shocked by the sudden suicide of a colleague; his two distinct identities, too, are beginning to blur. But he must not let his feelings show on the phone. In his simple and sensitive solo performance, Arjun Raina – actor, author and voice coach for call centres – weaves a delicate global net, opting for a modern way of storytelling to narrate a great inner movie about the intertwining destinies of two persons at opposite ends of the planet who seemingly could not be more different from each other.

Discussion with the audience:
Free admission, 25 May, following the performance (approx. 8.50 p.m.), dietheater Künstlerhaus