May 8, 1998
Lily Delivery and line distinction came up trumps throughout, with an
all-new pattern of pauses, in Portia’s Quality of Mercy piece and Shylock’s
penultimate plea, which came off heartrendingly well. Both gave us lines
where meaning and intent crystalised with chilselled precision and panache
Lushin’s intonation, volumne, pitch and tone ran the entire gamut of
voice production and control. What could she do but teach and direct young
theatre? The catch in her husky voice made us hope that the aspirants
of ‘KIDSWORLD’ absorb and assimilte all that she has to offer in language
speaking skills. It was no struggle for her to dominate her part every
night, and except that she was pitted against Amar Talwar’s superltive
Shylock she would have, unwittingly, upstaged then
all and that too, as one of shake’s strongest leading ladies! Hang
in there and you’ll be reading much much more about her on this page-
but as one avid theatre animal said to another, “Lilette plays up, but
Lushin plays down”! Otherwise they’re sitting close of course, but
we aisle- squatters are paid to put our foot in our mouths-anyway,
she’s a legend in her own lunchtine and possibly the best Portia of
our times.
Aruna Ahluwalia