In Ted Chiang’s 2007 novelette, The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate, a fabric merchant from medieval Baghdad, Fuwaad ibn Abbas, walks into a new establishment “to peruse its wares”. On entering, he’s taken by an alchemist-owner, Bashaarat, to a gate called the Gate of Years, which can take one into the future. The shop owner narrates stories about those who’ve seen their future selves. Among them are a rope-maker Hassan, his wife Raniya, and a weaver named Ajib. The knowledge of another gate far away in Cairo, which takes people back into the past, tempts a guilt-ridden Abbas to set foot on an adventure and make amends with his late wife. What choices does he end up making?

Through a stage adaptation, one of the city’s most established theatre groups, Motley Productions, will put together a dramatic storytelling show on Friday called The Gate of Years in a Versova studio. The adaptation will depict Chiang’s story in a new light, with Kenneth Desai taking on the role of the lead storyteller. The show will be performed in English. For Desai, the need to unearth the story arose from its sense of completeness. “It has everything from adventure, fantasy and humour, to a touch of sensuality, and a lovely moral at the end. What more can a story offer? Sometimes, you just connect with a piece; it resonates with you,” he tells us.