The city will take a peek into her life as well as that of 22 others — all sex workers and their children from Sangli's Gokul Nagar area — when the play is staged at Prithvi Theatre on March 18 and 19. The theatre goers of Bangalore are already familiar with their story as the production premiered at Ranga Shankara on February 17.

Stringing together the slices of their life was not easy for these sex workers, who are members of the Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad (VAMP). Perfecting its stage presentation was even harder and required three years of intense preparation.

“We wanted the play to go beyond the NGO circle and find a wider audience. We took all care to make it a proper performance,” says Meena Seshu, head of Sangram, an NGO that toiled to make this happen. “Most of them couldn’t speak Hindi. But Divya Bhatia spent three years holding workshops to get their diction and body language right,” says Seshu. The rehearsal started a year back after the script was ready in Hindi. It was initially written in Kannada and Marathi — the languages Gokul Nagar sex workers converse in — and was translated in Hindi by Smriti Nevatria, keeping the local flavour intact.

“We are rehearsing during the day for our Mumbai shows,” says Vajane. She plays Leena, who is ditched by her richshaw-driver lover. The mother of two is delighted to be the central character, but wishes she get a bigger role in future. May be because My Mother... is not her story alone. It takes a look at the life in Leena’s galli, with other actors enacting episodes from their lives woven into the play. “It has been very interesting to see how each actor has fleshed out his/her character for the play from their experiences,” says Sushama Deshpande, who has directed the 70-minute play.