With great delight I can announce the advent of talented young dramatists in Kolkata writing original scripts in English. After Asif Currimbhoy, English-language theatre in the city over the last few decades depended largely on plays from elsewhere, sprinkled with only the occasional English text authored by Vinay Sharma or Anindita Banerji. Now we may rest assured that the next gen has taken over the baton.
Ahon Gooptu, who got his Master’s in theatre from Florida State University, has appeared on this website previously with Seasons of Love, another original. He developed Curl’s Labor Day Reunion between 2019 and 2022 at various places in the US before directing its world premiere at The Urban Theatre Project this month. It demonstrates a mature hand at playwriting and stagecraft that promises even better things in future. Unfortunately, I cannot divulge details about the plot because its appreciation hinges on the surprise elements that I should not spoil. Suffice it to say that in Chicago, a woman of Indian descent prepares for childbirth, awaiting the American father’s arrival, while the Arab-origin nurse helps her. Eighteen years elapse and in Act 2, we see that baby now grownup, as well as the three adults again.
Gooptu deals with such topical concerns as broken relationships, adoption, queerness and single parenting with a rare sensitivity. For our audiences, he may need to add some dialogue to clarify the American legalities of adoption. More importantly, he should ensure that the mother’s sudden admission to the son does not sound incredible, and should change the adults’ looks and behaviour to show that they have aged 18 years. Having said that, the entire cast performs capably: Dana Roy as the conflicted mother, Palashh Chaturvedi the nurse, Aditya Krishnan the father (all in the photo), joined by the young Eeshan Chatterjee as the resentful son.
The Red Curtain has discovered a writer in their backstage backyard. After many crew duties, Piyush Daga takes on another significant contemporary subject, gender stereotypes, farcically in Role Reversal, following the footsteps of Anindita Banerji’s Don’t Say “No”, Adrija! Portraying three generations of the same family, from grandparents in patriarchy to parents in matriarchy on the rebound and children trying to find themselves, he produces quite a romp using traditional matchmaking as the recurrent device. The first two such cases tease our funnybone but the last comes as a letdown, making it seem that he ran out of inventive ideas as the play came to its end after an hour. Nevertheless, it marks a good start for a debut and we look forward to more.
As director, Daga has less control with the wildly uneven acting, for several actors fluffed their lines and cues, pointing towards under-rehearsal, but the general merriment covered up these shortcomings. Adreeja Majumder as the confident granddaughter left the most lasting impression with her highly malleable face. Employing the tag “Feminism is not anti-men”, Daga justifiably pitches “equality” over what he unnecessarily stigmatizes as “the f-word”, feminism, but why can’t we simply call equality humanism?
25 June 2025