On 21st August, Varun and I got the special chance of watching Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah live in their spellbinding performance of Dear Liar, a play that chronicles the relationship of George Bernard Shaw and Stella Patrick Campbell. Below is my review of the play.
--------------------------------------------
Lights flashing, one after the other,
on different parts of the stage. A chair. A door. Curtains. All visible in
flashes, one after the other. Thudding sounds. Doorbells and telephones
ringing. And then silence. And complete darkness. A pause… The audience is by
now all eyes and ears. And then a sudden spot of light focused on the centre of
the stage, and there, standing, hand in hand, the two greats of Indian theatre,
Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah. The audience erupt in a thunderous
applause. They are thrilled with this dramatic entrance. The actors walk
together to the front of the stage, all grace and poise, and the night’s show
begins.
Ratna Pathak Shah, elegant as always,
her every movement from picking up a letter to storming off the stage is in
character. She looks and plays every bit the proud and confident English
actress, with her head held high, fit to conquer any stage in the world. Stella
Patrick Campbell, although long gone, lives once again in Ratna. And then of
course, George Bernard Shaw. Nasseruddin Shah, his deep, resonating voice
echoing across the hall fills the audience with a warmth they’ve never felt
before. His wonderful, wholesome stage presence captivates the audience for two
hours. Together, Rathna Pathak and Naseeruddin act out the relationship between
Stella Patrick Campbell, an English actress at the pinnacle of her career, and
George Bernard Shaw, the great English playwright, fallen prey to Mrs. Patrick
Campbell’s mesmerizing charms. The play covers a time span of almost forty
years, during which this fascinating relationship blossoms, matures and
eventually dies. Naseeruddin Shah brings alive the wit, energy (and
stubbornness) of Shaw flawlessly and the audience find themselves hooting with
laughter throughout. Ratna portrays Campbell as the strong minded woman she is,
struggling to own the London stage in a male-dominated society. (Campbell
remarks that both her husbands left her as they couldn’t stand being
overshadowed by a woman)
The play follows Campbell and Shaw
through highs and lows, joys and heartbreak. The first performance of Pygmalion
was all the rage in London. It was the most successful production of the age
with accolades showered on Shaw and Campbell, but its success was brought
abruptly to an end with the beginning of the First World War. Here, we are
witness to Shaw’s bitter indignation at the war, and Campbell’s heartbreaking
sorrow at the loss of her son. This is one point in the play that the depth of
their relationship is portrayed. Shaw refuses to offer his condolences to
Campbell because of his very strong views on the war, and it must be noted that
in a society filled the outward politeness, only a mature and meaningful
relationship could withstand the ruthlessly harsh remarks of Shaw.
Naseeruddin and Ratna show their
experience and skill as actors on stage as they depict the aging of Shaw and
Campbell through forty years in two hours. In the beginning they have a spring
in their step and confidence in their stride, use every corner of the stage and
walk tall, their loud and booming voices filling the auditorium. Campbell, by
the end of the play can hardly walk and what was once the melodious voice that
thrilled the London theatres is reduced to a thin croak. Shaw, and octogenarian
by the end of the play, has become a grumpy old Englishman, although his inert
energy is still palpable. The audience truly have lived forty years with these
brilliant actors, so convincing was their performance.
At the end of two hours, when it is
time to say goodbye, the audience doesn’t want to. They have been witness to
the highest form of acting that the Indian stage can boast of, and the
opportunity to behold such excellence in this art comes but occasionally. As
the actors bow down, the audience gives them one last resonating round of
applause and exit the theatre with a content heart and food for thought.
----------------------------------------
The story of how I ended up writing the article is quite amusing, actually. At the beginning of the play, the announcer informed us that we had the chance of being featured in The Hindu newspaper (this was after all The Hindu Theatre Fest) if we wrote a review of 50 to 100 words and the review was good enough to make the cut. Instead of '50 to 100 words', I heard 'fifty two hundred words', that is five thousand two hundred words! Imagine that... I thought it quite ridiculous. No one would write such a long essay! Well, turns out I was the ridiculous one. I set to work the next morning, wrote a six hundred word essay (which is above) and sent it to the Hindu by late evening (I'd already crossed the deadline by then, which was 11:00 am that morning). It was AFTER I sent it that I chanced to glance at the Metro Plus (a daily edition of The Hindu) and saw the reviews of the day before yesterday's performance. Needless to day I realized my mistake, and felt like the dumbest ass in the world. I did send a hundred word essay, choosing lines from the six hundred word one, and took the trouble to send it. But of course I'd by now overshot the deadline by a long time and the review didn't get published.
Lesson learned: LISTEN from next time onward, if you please!
Bellow is the hundred word edited review.
----------------------------------------
A THRILLING NIGHT
A chance to witness such excellence in acting comes but
occasionally. Stella Patrick Campbell, although long gone, lives once again as
Ratna Pathak Shah flawlessly portrays her. Naseeruddin Shah plays the
celebrated George Bernard Shaw and his deep, resonating voice echoing across
the hall fills the audience with a warmth they’ve never felt before. His
wonderful, wholesome stage presence captivates the audience for two hours. The
play follows these two souls through forty years, and sees their relationship
blossom, mature and eventually die. Through joys and heartbreak, the actors
take us on a rollicking ride we will never forget.
----------------------------------------
