The Script
The Script, September 2007. Issue 9.

Dear Drama lover,

 Hello again! Theatre mayhem seems to have absolutely taken over. New productions are crawling out of the woodwork. Not only are there 11 musicals slated to open at the Prithvi Festival in November, but September sees the premiere performances of Divya Jagdale's latest play End of Season and also Anahita Uberoi returns to the theatre with Bombay Black. Also the musical The Wizard of Oz seems to have taken over the Sophia Bhabha Theatre.

 August unfortunately left us with a very bad taste in our mouth. Two separate incidents of rowdy behaviour by audiences at our shows really made us wonder as to why we do what we do. In both instances audience members were over 15 minutes late. In the first instance, 8-10 audience members from the Udayan Cultural Group fought a loud battle and physically threatened to throw our representatives down the stairs at the NGMA so that they could enter the auditorium. The matter only resolved after they were assured that there would be a second show especially for them as soon as audiences left after the first one. The second incident happened at the Prithvi Theatre where a lady came out of a performance to take up her husband's cause who was denied entry as he was about 15 minutes late. Not only did she shout outside the auditorium door, thereby disturbing the seated audience and the show, she also threatened police action if we did not let her husband in. On both occassions we were given great comfort by the support and encouragement from both sets of audiences who not only endured the disruptions but also chastised the offending audience members for disturbing the performances. However, as theatre-wallahs, we are struggling to come to terms with the fact we may be able to bring people to the theatre, but there is no way to tackle the growing disrespect for the live performer and the blatant disregard for the demands of the art form.

 On the QTP front, as always there is plenty happening. Q and Toral have packed their bags once again to represent QTP in  A Midsummer Night's Dream UK Tour of nine cities. But the juggernaut rolls on. After the last 2 shows of our hit comedy play The President is Coming, Thespo at Prithvi continues to serve you some more youthful talent.  

 In this month's edition of The Script, Rati Tripathi sends us an sms round up of a selection of plays she saw at the Metro Theatre Festival in Chennai and Scherezade Kaikobad reviews To The Death of My Own Family, which QTP had brought down from New York. 

And not to forget, our monthly Great Texts reading is in the last week of September. Look forward to seeing you there.

Yours Sincerely,
On Behalf of Q Theatre Productions,

Himanshu.
Editor, The Script.

Quick Links:
Corno-Q-pia:  The President is Coming, Thespo 9, Thespo at Prithvi & Great Texts.
Point of View:  Scherezade Kaikobad reviews To The Death of My Own Family.
4 Corners: Rati Tripathi sends us an sms round up of a selection of plays at the Metro Theatre Festival recently concluded in Chennai.
Up & Coming:  All the exciting plays happening in the city!
Great Stuff:  Auditions and much much more!
Curtain Call:  Tristan Bernard tells us about surprising the audience.

Corno-Q-pia
The horn of plenty of QTP events and happenings.

QL

Point of View:  
This month Scherezade Kaikobad reviews QTP's 'To the Death of my Own Family'. The views expressed in this article are those of the author. You are welcome to agree, disagree or comment by emailing us at qtp@vsnl.com.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE APOLITICAL DEATH OF MY OWN FAMILY

To The Death Of My Own Family was a strange theatre experience – momentarily overwhelming, but at the same time leaving one curiously empty and unsatisfied.  Written by David L Meth, directed by Peter Ratray and enacted by Farah Bala, this one-woman performance is based on the story of an American citizen of Afghan origin who is denied entry into the US on returning from a trip to Taliban-dominated Afghanistan where she not only witnessed the death of her family but was raped as well. The play scores high in terms of immediate shock value – arousing, within the constrains of a live performance, sheer horror and disbelief at the inhumanity of people; a feeling somewhat akin to that experienced while watching, say for instance, Schindler’s List or Parzania on the big screen. But while the emotional impact may have been similar, the play differed from the films in one vital aspect – both films were firmly grounded in their respective socio-political realities, but the play was not.

 Sometimes, while attempting to deal with cultural globalization and its dislocations, artistic representations tend to fall into one of two traps – either that of stereotyping communities or else swinging to the other extreme by trying to erase all signs of difference that mark individuals as having a specific cultural history and identity. To The Death Of My Own Family fell into the latter trap, yielding to what you might call the ‘melting pot syndrome’ or the tendency to make homogenous and to universalize, sacrificing the specific for the general, the local for the global. Like the melting pot which alters the very chemical composition of the ingredients put into it so that they lose their distinctiveness and blend into a new homogenous mass, this play – purportedly about the Afghan-American diaspora experience post 9/11 – in actuality seems almost to gloss over or pay scant attention to the specific cultural situation of the protagonist Nadeema. So much so that despite having travelled with Nadeema to witness the death of each member of her family (and the actress Farah Bala literally had her fellow passengers–audience by the throat every inch of that journey!) and travelled back with her to the US where she is denied entry and asked to prove her ‘Americanness’, yet at the end of it all one is left with the rather disconcerting feeling that the play has not said anything much!

 The problem (if one might be permitted to call it that) possibly lies in the script, which the tour de force quality of the staging and performance manages to camouflage to a great extent. While the script is beautifully crafted – with the plot moving forward through a monologue that slips smoothly between reminiscence and re-enactment, and the characters are drawn with a good deal of sympathy – what the plot seems to lack is a firm cultural and political mooring. Quite ironically for a play that plunges headfirst into a murky socio-political quagmire (it opens with Nadeema being detained in an isolated cell at a US airport simply because she has returned from Afghanistan), the script plays neutral, shying away from getting its hands dirty in exploring the politics of the situation it has set for itself! Like the faceless, disembodied voice of American authority that interrogates Nadeema over the intercom, the voices in the script seem generalized and disembodied as well. And like Nadeema who wants to know who is interrogating her, one too was left with a sense of frustration with the script for not even attempting to explore who and what lay behind that voice of US paranoia, nor what it specifically means to be an American citizen of Afghan origin. In fact, to borrow a theatre simile, the whole Afghan-American scenario seemed more like painted cloth hung upstage, a mere backdrop to the action on stage, rather than an integral aspect that defined the characters. If anything, the play was more about the mistrust of and violence against ‘the other’ which manifests itself in various forms in different places and times; for instance, with a few modifications, Nadeema could very well have been a Muslim in certain parts of India forced to prove her ‘Indianness’, and the violence she experienced in Afghanistan could have been her lot if she were in Gujarat. The danger of such generalizations which the play very nearly succumbed to is that you can end up treating such violences as apolitical and turn a blind eye to the very real and specific forms of imperialism that lie behind them.

Scherazade Kaikobad
scherazade@rediffmail.com
 

QL

4 Corners:
Rati Tripathi sends us an sms round up of a selection of plays at the Metro Theatre Festival recently concluded in Chennai.

Nine Hills One Valley

Chorus Repertory Theatre, Imphal
Written and Directed by Ratan Thiyam
A visual treat of wonderfully precise movements, gorgeous costumes, crisp lighting and nice use of props. But the slow deliberate pace and manipuri script made it difficult to concentrate 100%. Reminded me of Korean play from NSD fest in January.

To the Death of my Own Family

Awaken Productions, New York
Written by David L. Meth
Directed by Peter Ratray
The excessively dramatic tone of voice at the start spoiled it for me. There were some nice moments during the monologue and the actress looked like she thought she was in control the whole time but on the whole playing scenes between 5 & 6 characters of different age, accent, demeanor was an onerous job. She did not speak into her lapel properly. constant drone from some fault with lights very distracting.

Butter and Mashed Banana

Harami Theatre, Bangalore
Written and Directed by Ajay Krishnan
I really liked seeing the director sitting up on stage laughing along with the audience. The play starts with an awesome line and unbelievably delivers some 20 more in the next 60 minutes. Visually appealing design and movements. Clever with props. The play transported me away from my world for the full 60 minutes. The whole piece worked, no line or prop or light or movement jarred. No one actor stood out. I stood up and clapped despite the weak ending. Vivek Madan caught the eye and ear during songs. Gulshan and Vinod worked well together.

Dear Bapu

Natwa, New Delhi
Written and Directed by Mohan Maharishi
What bloody play. Dramatized reading. Walked out at interval.

Checkpoint- Three Strangely Normal Plays

Stages Theatre Group, Colombo
Written by Dhananjaya Karunaratna, Ruwanthie de Chickera.
Directed by Ruwanthie de Chickera
My yardstick at this fest is if the play can hold my attention. The first monologue did not for even one minute but people around me seemed to enjoy it. The second was a dramatised presentation of media reports from one 24 hour period. The concept sounded promising but the delivery seemed incredibly pretentious for the most part. The third play, about the Tamil and Sinhalese differences was set in an interactive format. The audience suggested three scenes. Very well done. Great actors.

Ristorante Immortale                                                                                                                                           

Familie Floz, Berlin
Written by Bjorl Leese, Paco Gonzalez, Hajo Schuler, Ilka Vierkant, Michael Vogel
Directed by Michael Vogel
Simply Superb. Brilliant Comic Timing. Fantastic ensemble. A silent play featuring a manager, an accordion player and 3 waiters cleaning up, fooling around, practicing dance routines, preparing for diners who never arrive. Actors wore huge puppet mask faces.

Rati Tripathi is a theatre enthusiast and a microfinance researcher.

QL

Up&Coming:
The following is a list of shows you should watch out for this month. The code to it's deciphering is as follows:
in blue are QTP events. 
Those with an (R) next to them means that we have reviewed it, and if you require a review simply email us at qtp@vsnl.com asking for it. 
Those with an (PP) next to them means that it is a platform performance, entry free!