Post by joem on Nov 14, 2019 22:40:44 GMT
Reimagining and updating of Ibsen's "Ghosts" in an Indian context, substituting violence against women for the original syphilis; in the process extending the personal nature of the original into a wider perspective whilst keeping the notion of a "plague" passed on through the generations. Playwright Anupama Chandrasekhar has written a play which, if it drifts on occasion towards melodrama, makes compelling viewing and pulls no punches on the inexplicably lax manner in which violence against women is often treated on the sub-continent.
Ayesha Darker (as Hema the Nora Alving type figure of a widowed mother in denial about her son's hereditary failings) is the pick of the acting talent here, she is developing into a fine and versatile actress and is well assisted by Soni Razdan as Jaya, her devious, bed-ridden mother-in-law on whose whim the crows are fed and kept in the grounds until the denouement.
On the technical side I have to say the crows, featured in the title and an important symbolic presence throughout the play, might have been given a more prominent presentation to match the excellent sound effects. The set of a decaying middle-class mansion in Chennai, though, was beautifully done and might almost be serviceable in a play about the Deep South.
Unlike many other similar theatrical exercises of recent times whilst "Ghosts" is namechecked there is no attempt to present this as anything other than an original work and Ibsen is not billed as author, co-author or anything else. Thank you, Kiln.
Ayesha Darker (as Hema the Nora Alving type figure of a widowed mother in denial about her son's hereditary failings) is the pick of the acting talent here, she is developing into a fine and versatile actress and is well assisted by Soni Razdan as Jaya, her devious, bed-ridden mother-in-law on whose whim the crows are fed and kept in the grounds until the denouement.
On the technical side I have to say the crows, featured in the title and an important symbolic presence throughout the play, might have been given a more prominent presentation to match the excellent sound effects. The set of a decaying middle-class mansion in Chennai, though, was beautifully done and might almost be serviceable in a play about the Deep South.
Unlike many other similar theatrical exercises of recent times whilst "Ghosts" is namechecked there is no attempt to present this as anything other than an original work and Ibsen is not billed as author, co-author or anything else. Thank you, Kiln.
