Histrionics set the stage on fire

HT City - Monday, January 12, 2004 - Jaipur

IN WHAT was the first theatre performance in a stage setting although not exactly the proscenium, in the ongoing Jaipur International Heritage Festival, Lushin Dubey performed solo at the Narain Niwas on Sunday.

Untitled, as the solo performance is called, brought 65 minutes of histrionics at a venue transformed into an intimate set.

Dubey may or may not be as widely known as sibling Lilette Dubey But going by the work done by her, her career in theatre can be described as only steady, besides her noticeable appearances in TV serials Rajdhani and Kashmir. Her work at Theatre World and Kids World Arvind Gaur of Asmita and Babbles Sabharwal has been noticed widely. Directed by Arvind Gaur, known for pioneering theatre work with ASMITA New Delhi and entirely about women, the solo act by Lushin is inspired by quite a few things, primarily by a story Nyari-Nyari Maryada by the Rajasthani fiction writer Vijaydan Detha. Coming as a Protofeminist statement and as a an assertion of woman sexuality, the performance is also inspired by Dario Fo’s version of the play Medea. It’s also traced in some ways to Tehmani Durrani’s Blasphmy.

Dubey, who performs several parts in the solo, enacts most of it in the story telling technique. Rightly so, for that’s the best things to do with a story. That Dubey is sutradhar narrator par excellence is proved by the fact that an 80 minutes text is given off in almost 60 minutes here. But not without the desired effect. Her best comes when she does the seductress with the sais. It’s a display of some brilliant synchronization of speech, foot work and play with the mask.

The play mixes parts from Medea to liken the revenge of the wronged women in two situations, one from the East and the other from the West. And how well that underscores the universality of the situation! On one side it’s Medea wronged by Jason and in Nyari Nyari it’s the queen.

In fact, the play brings out the exploitation and abuse of the women in all strata of the society as is proved by the sweepress and the panditain of the Detha story. The rules of the male society are aptly rebuffed by this adaptation. The play uses a set of six doorframes, symbolizing the similar story of the woman in each household.