Girish Karnad's new play, Wedding Album, directed by Lillette Dubey, is being staged at Chowdiah on 10 and 11 July, under the auspices of India Foundation for the Arts.

"Wedding Album has a very light touch; it doesn't probe too deeply into questions, but at the same time, it touches on several issues that will make the audience think," says Lillette. "The audience can either relate to it in this light fashion, or they could delve deeper and debate the issues -- the level of engagement is up to them," she opines. Lillette is looking forward to staging the play in Bangalore, she says.

Girish Karnad at his J P Nagar home on 8 July. Pic: Author.

"This is the first time I am working with Girish, and he gave me complete independence to 'chop and shape'," she smiles. "The script was delightful." She says that the play starts in a normal, staid fashion...and then takes off and "goes somewhere else."

A smiling Karnad acknowledges both these points. He adds: "I must say, she made the second half more...decent! The language as I had written it was pretty raw." Karnad says he gave Lillete complete freedom. "That's the only way for a professional playwright to do it," he says, at ease in his home. "In fact, I will be seeing the play tomorrow and seeing what changes she has made, and incorporate some of them in the published version that the Oxford Press is bringing out soon," he responds.

This play has been, in a sense, 30 to 40 years in the making, according to him. When his sister got married, he watched the members of his family gathering together, and observed the resultant interpersonal dynamics and tensions...he found it a combination of "celebration and anxiety", and tucked it away in his mind, to emerge much later. He did not want to write it as a "story" play, though, and the form that it has taken now is satisfying to him.

And taking that form meant quite a few changes. Sometimes sheer logistics dictate the changes, as when Lillette cut down the cast from 16 people to 10. Lillette believes in treating her cast very well, and flies them down to the venues, "Can you imagine buying plane tickets for 16 people?" she asks jokingly.

No wonder Girish says, with a quick intervention, that he only looks after the "drama" end, and the directors look after the "theatre" end! Sometimes the challenge of "making the words work on the stage" as Girish puts it, dictated the changes. "After the very first show, at her suggestion, I wrote a scene into the play," he adds.

"Wedding Album is full of sharp, pithy, and observant comments," says Lillette. And she says, "Just because the play is not heavy, it doesn't mean it doesn't have muscle and content." The show at the 1100-strong NCPA theatre at Mumbai was sold out, and the audience was laughing out loud. The shows at Delhi and Chandigarh were also well received.

So both the playwright and the director are agreed that the first part of the play is easy to love and enjoy, and the second part takes one to unfamiliar territory.

The audience reaction has been, to Lillette, a vindication of her own talent for spotting something good and working on it. She says she had a lady who travelled with her after the Delhi shows, and who told her she liked the second half better than the first. Her analysis of the play was so good that Lillette carries an extra respect for the audiences, who, she says, get everything that is being said.

So...we are really looking forward to Wedding Album by Girish Karnad, directed by Lillette Dubey, at the Chowdiah Memorial Hall, on 10 and 11 July. India Foundation for the Arts (see box for details) can be contacted for tickets, priced Rs. 500 and Rs.300. ⊕

Deepa Mohan is a freelance writer who fell in love with Bangalore when first she moved from Chennai, and has been both enthused and worried over the rapidly changing city. She is also a Bangalore metroblogger.

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