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Showing posts with the label play

To dance to the tune of...

Dance Like a Man (1989) Play by: Mahesh Dattani Thanks to MEV for the introduction. This play has been staged around the world so many times. Managed to pick up a youtube version of a play done in 2017 by the Asia Society in Hong Kong. It was the 580th show that the group had done around the world. It was made into a film in 2004. Everyone laments that society is patriarchal in nature. Members of the female gender often complain that their desires are clipped, and the organisation is pro-male, making things easier for them to succeed in life. Ladies achieve greater heights not because of the community's push but despite their hurdles.   Many cultures have stereotyped gender roles. Certain professions have been typecasted. Some jobs make a man less a man. Till recently, nurses were expected to be females, and male dancers were frowned upon. In this drama, we discover the difficulties a male member of an Indian family has to fulfil his lifelong ambition of becoming a successful ...

How to tackle a taboo subject?

30 days in September Screenplay: Mahesh Dattani Thanks to MEV for the introduction. The dilemma is this. For how long will the family look the other way, knowing jolly well that a sinful act that had been committed? People around the family knew about it all along but decided not to squeal, not even bat an eyelid.  Are they complicit in the infamy? Is maintaining harmony between members and the status quo in the equilibrium more important than defending the vulnerable? People say it happened at a different time when the dynamics were different. They say sometimes people do the stupidest of things when they are weak. They should not be vilified for the rest of their lives. They say, “why don't you move on, already?”. His deeds overshadow the creases in his personal life. You have to safeguard yourself. You do not want blood in your hands if his family institution falls aground.  Is that something you would like to wish upon them? Nobody is bothered about the victim. Should she ...

Make up your mind and move on...

Waiting for Godot (play, book) Writer: Samuel Beckett Thanks to MEV for the suggestion; for helping me in my journey to crack open my hard shell of ignorance.  Albert Camus and Samuel Beckett fall into the same category of philosophers-writers who lived through World War 2-ravaged France to build a very nihilistic view of life's purpose. Samuel Beckett, an Irishman, who spent a good portion of his life in France, can be credited to have started the 'theatre of absurdism' and received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969 for his books and drama. The life that is laid in front of us is apparently meaningless. In this tragi-comic play, we are shown as headless chickens running, not knowing what to do and not knowing what is expected of us. We are so fickle, always losing track of our purpose and get swooned over easily by events around us. We eagerly await instructions from people in authority without an iota of a clue about the right thing to do. But we wait and follow like...