There are 2 areas in Delhi that I patently avoid: Shahpurjat and HKV. Not because one has something against new age posh, but because one just loves open spaces. So events at these places are politely but firmly declined. Before you ask: Yes, I have lost friends owing to this hesitation.
But when a play is about the husband and the lover of a woman meeting after her demise, the premise is enticing enough to travel one hour and brave Shahpurjat. It was worth it.
A simple, one act play that eliminates all things unnecessary and focuses on.. i don't know.. The emotion that is after a demise...somewhere between anger and loss and grief.. like a Venn diagram whose intersections change every minute, hour and day.
The setting is a beach - half wet, half dry. So you can make sand castles, and let dry sand go through your hands - whatever you want, darling. That setting was pure genius.
The fishing net in the backdrop.. the tiny exhaust window that looks out into god knows what. I loved that window.
The characters are well etched but not fleshed out enough. The actors were great in their respective places, but for some reason, I kept switching them in my head all the time. I have no idea why!! But all the time, I felt that the husband was the lover and the lover was the husband.
The person who played the husband appeared to be grieving a lot more than the lover. I guess the only explanation is that after your wife dies, she goes from being a piece of furniture to being all the pieces of furniture in the house.
How does the lover feel when someone he loved but could not have, passes away? The husband has had a sense of closure.. but the lover? That question remained unanswered at the end of the play.
The husband's sense of betrayal is immediate(because he only discovers the affair after the death) and cannot be remedied... because the woman is no more.. but the lover's sense of betrayal? Does he feel cheated out of a future he could have had with her? SHOULD have had with her?
The sound effects, though overall good, faltered at some places. Quite a few times, the sound of the waves was so loud we couldn't hear what was being said. But at one place, there was a significant silence, and sound was used to perfection in that moment.
The lights were perfect.
The performance was intimate and very..i don't know.. straight from the heart. It did something that made u think of the play even a day later. (And it did get a standing ovation from the full house on that day). There was a small chai and chat session later that i quite enjoyed too.
There are some plays that change how you see life. Of course, you don't know that until much later. This play is very likely to make that list for me.
If u do get a chance, catch this play. And in exactly this kind of a setting. This is a play that demands a certain intimate exchange between the audience and the performance. A play that, I think, requires the viewer to get as naked as the performer.
But when a play is about the husband and the lover of a woman meeting after her demise, the premise is enticing enough to travel one hour and brave Shahpurjat. It was worth it.
A simple, one act play that eliminates all things unnecessary and focuses on.. i don't know.. The emotion that is after a demise...somewhere between anger and loss and grief.. like a Venn diagram whose intersections change every minute, hour and day.
The setting is a beach - half wet, half dry. So you can make sand castles, and let dry sand go through your hands - whatever you want, darling. That setting was pure genius.
The fishing net in the backdrop.. the tiny exhaust window that looks out into god knows what. I loved that window.
The characters are well etched but not fleshed out enough. The actors were great in their respective places, but for some reason, I kept switching them in my head all the time. I have no idea why!! But all the time, I felt that the husband was the lover and the lover was the husband.
The person who played the husband appeared to be grieving a lot more than the lover. I guess the only explanation is that after your wife dies, she goes from being a piece of furniture to being all the pieces of furniture in the house.
How does the lover feel when someone he loved but could not have, passes away? The husband has had a sense of closure.. but the lover? That question remained unanswered at the end of the play.
The husband's sense of betrayal is immediate(because he only discovers the affair after the death) and cannot be remedied... because the woman is no more.. but the lover's sense of betrayal? Does he feel cheated out of a future he could have had with her? SHOULD have had with her?
The sound effects, though overall good, faltered at some places. Quite a few times, the sound of the waves was so loud we couldn't hear what was being said. But at one place, there was a significant silence, and sound was used to perfection in that moment.
The lights were perfect.
The performance was intimate and very..i don't know.. straight from the heart. It did something that made u think of the play even a day later. (And it did get a standing ovation from the full house on that day). There was a small chai and chat session later that i quite enjoyed too.
There are some plays that change how you see life. Of course, you don't know that until much later. This play is very likely to make that list for me.
If u do get a chance, catch this play. And in exactly this kind of a setting. This is a play that demands a certain intimate exchange between the audience and the performance. A play that, I think, requires the viewer to get as naked as the performer.
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