FREE OUTGOING. To 24 November.
London
FREE OUTGOING
by Anupama Chandrasekhar.
Royal Court (Jerwood Theatre Upstairs) To 24 November 2007.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 3pm
Runs 1hr 15min No interval.
TICKETS: 020 7565 5000.
www.royalcourttheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 November.
Clash of old and new in Tamil society.
We never see Deepa, the teenage girl at the centre of Anupama Chandrasekhar’s new play. Which is ironic because, in the end, just about everyone in India does. Her sexual activities with her brother’s best friend are recorded on his mobile ‘phone and sent to one classmate. Who sends it to several others. Then someone posts it on the Internet.
Between the resulting media interest and the morally outraged populace who crowd all round their housing complex, distressing the neighbours (even the water-supplier can’t stop there any more), the only help for Deepa’s mother Malini is her ineffectual “colleague” Ramesh.
Chandrasekhar’s isn’t the subtlest play; Ramesh’s mealy-mouthed attraction to 38-year old deserted mum Malini is signalled from the start. It’s certainly clear to her son Sharan, who gives the visitor a character-assassination of a dressing-down. The teacher, the voice of the housing complex community and a TV reporter are equally simple characters in the service of a story. The boyfriend’s father seems initially to have more potential, but he ends his scene as the first in the series of people who will dismiss and desert Malini.
She’s hardly sympathetic herself, pushy and proud, haughtily defensive when first informed of her daughter’s behaviour by a teacher and then the father, as well as discovering it’s the source of her own son’s surliness. Yet he, Sharan, finally becomes active, realising it’s impossible to avoid media pursuit and the local reaction that gathers round the TV crews outside.
By when the once-proud, defiant Malini has sunk into a crumpled, humiliated depression. Barely able to mumble responses to Manjinder Virk’s brightly inconsiderate reporter, Lolita Chakrabarti cannot raise her eyes to the camera. The woman who walked commandingly around her front-room is now effectively a prisoner of a home raided by the media.
Chakrabarti shows this clearly, though overall Indhu Rubasingham’s production plays the most obvious characteristics over-emphatically, missing out on much by way of character shading. Still, a society caught between traditional morality and new international technology, where water’s delivered daily to houses with mobile ‘phones and DVDs, is clearly pictured in Chandrasekhar’s play.
Santhosh: Ravi Aujla.
Malini: Lolita Chakrabarti.
Sharan: Sacha Dhawan.
Ramesh: Raj Ghatak.
Nirmala: Shelley King.
Kokila/Usha: Manjinder Virk.
Director: Indhu Rubasingham.
Designer: Rosa Maggiora.
Lighting: Mark Jonathan.
Sound: Christopher Shutt.
Fight director: Bret Yount.
Assistant director: Vik Sivalingam.
2007-11-19 14:58:18