Ad Nauseam

For Fresh Lime Soda, I directed “Ad Nauseam” - a play about a play written by Raefah Wahid. The cast of actors all attempt to stitch together a show that is the pinnacle of perfection. With this singular goal in mind, the play begins. And begins. And begins. And never ends, because to end would be to give up the pursuit of perfection. Also, Real Housewives are somehow involved.

I tend to ramble about how our production’s choice of disco in the second act was actually a tribute to leftist South Asian street theatermaker Safdar Hashmi or how Sally messaging “lol” in the chat ruptures the false binary between spectator and performer in theater. Part of Fresh Lime’s mission is creating explicitly political theater that archives or provokes resistance. A lot of this political theater is really traumatic and cathartic and painful. This is not that play. This performance is a comedy - an abstract, metatheatrical comedy with a nonzero amount of references to the Kylie Jenner Lip Kit. Perhaps when you watch it, you’ll think: “what’s political about this performance” or even “what’s South Asian about this performance” or perhaps “wow, they’re referencing the Kylie Jenner Lip Kit again, huh.” These are all good questions you should have in mind, and this play is obviously about a lot of things, like perfection, beauty, and of course, circles, but to me, this play is about joy.

📍 Zoom 

Director: Sabina Sethi Unni
Playwright: Raefah Wahid
Performers: Sanskar Agarwal, Fazeelat Aslam, Siddarth Anand, Anita Ganesan, Shravan Amin, Nikita Lamba, Laya Bommireddy, and Kanika Asavari Vaish
Stage manager: Padya Paramita
Assistant stage manager: Urja Jariwala
Sound designer/ composer: Lucky Bommireddy