This Dubey's on right track

HT CITY    
Wednesday, 9 October 2002

Actress Lushin Dubey's Untitled is being staged at Tagore on Oct 10.

"I SUFFER from no delusions that whatever I do is right." Thus purrs well-known theatre person Lushin Dubey But a lot she does is just right. Like this acclaimed play directed by Arvind Gaur she brings t o City Beautiful on October 10 at Tagore Theatre called Untitled. Why the unspecified nomenclature... and she clarifies: "This solo piece is about women and aren't most women faceless, nameless entities rather non-entities." But clearly she isn't... she agrees: "Indeed I am no suppressed subjugated specimen of the fairer sex." Rather she attributes 'the wind be-neath her wings...' to her mathematician husband.

But, of course, the wings on which she sails are very much her own creation... have been ever since she set her foot into children's theatre with Kids World. "For I love children even though children's theatre is a thankless job..." Along with cousin Bubbles Sabahrwal, slowly the duo moved into parallel trail - adult theatre. Shakespearean productions led to Edinburgh Fringe Award. Too soon she felt. "Theatre, yes even in English, can really work if it is indigenous and ingenious." And thus flowed a fountainhead of originality like the Runaway. Then The life of Gautama Buddha which had blessings of Dalai Lama himself.

But why theatre? "In US work-ing with mentally-challenged children often threw up challenges, to evolve a system of education yet break out of a formal curriculum." And her theatrical background -years spent with Barry John's Theatre in action, thanks to elder sister Lillete Dubey - helped her evolve theatrical activities. Thus experimental theatre is a process... a gamble, a cookie, which may or may not crumble. For instance, Untitled, her first major foray into Hindi, her first interaction with puppets as co actors, she adds: "Could have gone wrong." But deafening applause at premier show in Mumbai, followed by Ishara Puppet Festival, NSD Mahsotav and she can hum: "Challenge... moving into unknown is a discovery."

So is television. Yes, other the-atre persons may cast a Snook at this medium with amazing reach but she beams: "Camera, unlike theatre, is a broken chain... yet I find it a friendly medium." So is cinema beckoning? Well, there is one Perfect Husband and other offers are rolling in. "But I am not chasing." Her track, meanwhile, is predetermined: "Plays, plays and more plays."