Express News Service
Haruki Murakami’s metaphysical world may seem to be difficult to translate on stage, but the production ‘The Right Thing To Do’ might be a pointer in the right direction. Directed by Pallavi Verma, the play consisted of three mini plays based on three stories by the Japanese writer – ‘The Year of the Spaghetti’, ‘The Little Green Monster’ and ‘The Dabchick’.
In the first play, the protagonist keeps cooking spaghetti for an year to deal with his loneliness, and wonders poignantly at the end: “Did the Italians know that what they were exporting in 1971 was actually loneliness?”
Actor Atul Rastogi did a fine job in the play, which was essentially a monologue. The blue lighting and the background music by Ruchi Agarwal provided ample support to create the despairing world of the protagonist stuck in a rut of cooking spaghetti. Indian classical vocals lent by Sohum Paul elevated the production value and gave it an almost movie-like feel.
In the second story ‘The Little Green Monster’, Madhuri Dempsey was terrific as the bored housewife who slowly begins to enjoy the power she has over a small, green creature that had sprung from the netherworld. It was fascinating to watch the transformation of a woman who was first scared of the creature, but then slowly killed it once she realised that she had the power to do so. Dempsey vacillated between being the scared woman and the diabolical killer with consummate ease, and made it a treat to watch.
In the third story, ‘The Dabchick’, the director chose to cast a girl as the main protagonist instead of a young man like in the story. She ostensibly goes out looking for a job, and then a bizarre game of guessing the password to enter a door follows. This one was the most metaphorical of the plays, and was bit of a drag. In a Kafkaesque narrative, the protagonist (Preeti Golacha) is badly in need of a job, and goes searching for an elusive door. When she does find the door, she meets a strange man (Shirish Ghoshal) who demands a password. The attire worn by Golacha resembled a school uniform, and that might confuse the viewer about her role in the story.
Speaking after the play ended, Verma, the director, said: “Once I started reading short stories by Murakami, I got hooked. All these stories revolve around a door, and I thought it would be interesting to depict them on stage.”
— Kakoli Mukherjee
kakoli_mukherjee@newindianexpress.com
@KakoliMukherje2
