21 July,2011 07:18 AM IST | | Priyanjali Ghose
It's raining plays in the city starting tonight. While actor Lillete Dubey enacts her dream role of Savitiri, a middle-aged bold woman who puts her desire above everything in the Hindi play Adhe Adhure, Delhi-based theatre group, Tadpole Repertory explores broken dreams, thwarted desires and some 'lived experiences', in their two monologues and a full length play over the weekend
Since the time she watched Adhe Adhure, a well known play in the Hindi theatre circuit decades ago, actor and theatre personality Lillete Dubey always wanted to play the protagonist Savitri. Decades later, in Bangalore, Dubey will get a chance to realise her dreams in her first Hindi production Adhe Adhure.
Ira Dubey, Mohan Agashe, and Lillete Dubey
Written by Sangeet Natak Akademi award winner writer Mohan Rakesh, also a pioneer of Nai Kahani or the new story movement that changed the face of Hindi literature in the 50s, the play, written in the late 60s, will premiere tonight as a presentation of India Foundation for the Arts, a city-based non-profit organisation that supports arts across India.
Lillete Dubey
This play directed by Dubey has been staged by several theatre groups before but Dubey claims that Adhe Adhure is evergreen and relevant even to a contemporary audience. She says, "It is a family drama and the diagnosis of a nuclear family will always be relevant. Rakesh has used contemporary devices to bring out the dysfunctional element in a middle-class family, where everyone has a point of view that is valid but conflicting."
Adhe Adhure chronicles the life of a middle-aged woman who is caught in a failed marriage and has to deal with an unemployed son and a promiscuous teenaged daughter. For years, Savitri is the backbone of her family, providing necessary financial and emotional support.
But with time she realises that life means much more and an unemployed husband, who does not fulfill her emotional and physical needs, strengthens her resolve for a better life. Thanks to her profession, she meets dynamic menu00a0 whom she gets involved with but her search for an emotional anchor is never met. And then one day, a friend from the past walks into her life and Savitri meets her true self. However, Dubey clarifies that the play is not a take on extramarital relationships. Instead, she reinstates that Adhe Adhure is all about the nuances of human nature and relations and portrays the thin lines between likes, dislikes and sympathy. In fact, Dubey says that all of Savitri's relationships outside marriage are more for an emotional fulfillment rather than a sexual drive.
Trapped in her own fate, Savitri can be compared to heroines in Greek tragedies, who try to outlive their destiny. Describing Savitri as a non-traditional Indian female protagonist much ahead of her time, Dubey says, "She is a feminist who is bold enough to say she is not happy with her marriage and circumstances. She may not be likeable but is very much her own person."
The play adheres to the original script but the set is designed in a way that reflects the chaos in Savitri's life, reveals Ira Dubey, who plays Savitri's elder daughter Binni in the play. Jute has been used excessively as a part of the set design and the space has been purposely kept tight to bring out the clutter in the lives of all those who are a part of Savitri's journey.
Where Chowdiah Memorial Hall, Malleshwaram
On July 21, 7.30 pmu00a0
Call 23414681/82
For R 2000, 1000, 500 and 300
