As part of Dublin Theatre Festival 2025
BE CAREFUL
MALLIKA TANEJA
Caution is central to a woman’s experience of life. It is prescribed, imbibed, and practiced with rigour so that women can be ‘safe’.
Be Careful is a satirical piece that challenges this notion of safety. Rooted in a widespread anger about the everyday violence against women, the performance confronts the unfortunate conflation between the manner in which women dress and the atrocities committed against them.
Stripping down a culture hiding behind its ignorant, prudish mores, Mallika Taneja exposes the contradictions of India’s stagnated social progress. Although rooted in a particular context, Be Careful resonates with audiences all over the world, pointing towards the global epidemic of victim blaming and violence against women.
Thirteen years since its first performances, Taneja continues to perform the show, in a world where the words ‘be careful’ and being ‘safe’ have taken on newer and seemingly more urgent meanings.
Performed in English.
