Firefly Women

Firefly Women is a physical theatre duet that brings together real letters, imagined futures, and moments of interaction from the audience. Drawing from the writings of three Indian women imprisoned under a strict national security law, the performance weaves personal stories of protest, prison life, and resistance. These letters are layered with Sultana’s Dream, a century-old feminist sci-fi story by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain.

Performed in English and Hindustani, the piece combines movement, spoken word, hand-crafted puppets, and sound to move between memory and imagination. The tone is gentle yet charged, with moments of stillness, warmth, and defiance. Audiences are invited to participate in small ways throughout, turning the performance into a shared space of reflection and co-creation.

It asks: how do we remember those who have been silenced? And how can we dream together, even in difficult times? This is a story about persistence - not loud or heroic, but steady, quiet, and glowing like a firefly in the dark.

Performers: Deepika Chauhan & Manjari Kaul

Sound Design: Neel Chaudhuri

Dramaturgy: Nisha Abdulla

Costumes: Sandhya Raman (tailoring by: Tilak Singh, Pawan, Ajit Singh)

Puppets: Shobhit Tandon & Manjari

Set Construction: Jaan Mohammad

Lights and Production Management: Kiran U

Direction and Design: Manjari Kaul

The show went through its initial development with the support of the Frankfurt MOVES! grant.