Nobody's Child

Theatre persons Arvind Gaur and Lushin Dubey stray into an area that most people would rather stay away from

LUSHIN Dubey was not the first person to approach writer Pinki Virani for rights to make a play based on her book Bitter Chocolate. But Dubey's the one who got the go-ahead. Why? Because when you have authored a pioneering book on child sexual abuse in India, you're bound to be picky.

"I have not seen Lushin Dubey's previous work," says Virani, "but from our discussions and the cases from the book she chose to include in her play, it was clear to me that her heart is in the right place.""

See for yourself on January 16 when the play is premiered at India Habitate Centre. Dubey enacts 12 roles through 55 minutes in this solo show that's been scripted and directed by fellow Delhiite Arvind Gaur, and sponsored by the NGO Council for Social Development.

Bitter Chocolate features shocking real-life examples from across India, but both Dubey and Gaur would rather not reveal the six they have chosen to highlight for the stage.

Asked why he didn't feature child actors in the play, Gaur replies, "Children are undergoing this trauma, and need not be further dragged into it. Awareness needs to be created among them in other sensitive ways. The play is a way of addressing adults who victimise them and creating awareness among those who need to protect them in the home."

Each character that Dubey plays discusses child sexual abuse from a different perspective. So there's an advocate, a policeman, a child who has been a victim, a mother, a psychiatrist and others.

On the surface, it may seem like there can be just one point of view on this heinous crime, but that's not necessarily true. The psychiatrist in the script, for instance, wants to help the victim. So does the mother, except that she's scared to speak out because she has a daughter.

The solo format is familiar ground for Dubey by now. It's the way she went with her earlier play Untitled which was about the marginalisation of women.