"George Washington's love" staged by Raaga on 14.6.2018 in Patna

 Man Vs. Mistress - an ideological fight 

Surprisingly  the wife has a reason to grow sympathetic to a mistress of her husband when she learns why the name of that mistress was uttered by her husband as his last word. The typical hostility between the two women who figured in  the life of one man needs no elaboration. Both are as spiteful to each other as you can imagine and yea,  the abomination is in full bloom at both ends.   The play accounts the altercation between the wife and the mistress of George Washigton, the first president of America after his death. Martha is the legal wife and Dolly is the concubine, a kept woman with whom George spent years leaving his wife before he returned to her.

Martha (wife) has called Dolly (mistress) at the graveyard of George Washington to quench her spiteful curiosity as how she felt while demolishing the marital life of a devotee wife who constantly extended love and support to her husband. Dolly says she never thought about the hurt feeling of the wife of her man and whether her action will hurt her severely. Then comes the cardinal question,"Did you really love my husband from the core of your heart?" And remarkably 'No' is the reply of Dolly. Martha is amazed how a highly sensible George can fall for a woman who admittedly had no love for him! The conversations turns from warm to scorching hot. And Martha is not in a position to give a respectful reply on the counter-query of Dolly "How were the moments of her intimate relationship with George Washigton. She somehow replies with a hope to elicit more info on the illegal relationship of her husband with his concubine. The drama proceeds in natural pace in a perfectly realistic set-up. 

Martha is almost at the brink of breaking her belief in the word of faithfulness. Man is the biggest betrayer on this planet. This is the moment when Dolly reveals that yes it is true that she never loved George but the further fact is also that even George never loved her. George and she were just spending time with each other and slept in different rooms of same building. The noble purpose behind this drama was to create a real reunion of the couple whose relationship had ruptured with the tempest of political activism. She categorically says that George always used to talk about his wife Martha only for whom he had a deep love in his heart solely. But he was quite perturbed by the Martha's views for him joining politics and becoming president of the country. George was neither willing to join politics nor to become a president. He, he only wished to spend time in the arms of his charming wife Martha.

There were only two characters namely Martha (Archana Soni) and Dolly (Annu Priya). Both of them looked graceful western ladies. The volume of dialogues delivered by Archana was  consistently well-audible giving her an edge over Annu on this front. Though Annu, having a lissome physique also acted quite well winning hearts of the audience. The only problem with her was her dialogues were becoming inaudible quite frequently. Either she or sound system might have been responsible for it. The emphasis in dialogue delivery, facial expressions and body language of both artists were impressive. The credit also goes to the director Bhupendra Kumar for getting better outputs from the established good actors. Though there was scope of getting the actors standing on the front side of the stage giving more clearer and effective view to the audience the point seems to be missed out. Lights were by Randhir Kumar who successfully maintained to ensure sombre and cumbrous scene of a graveyard with a dim though clearly visible light thrown all through the play. The stage setting with a large grave with a flag on a raised platform was able to signify the sublime befitting to a president. Any adornment was deliberately avoided with greenery on the floor and a big bench lying in the right back side of the stage. 

The script of the play crafted by Miro Gavrom is precise and cast light on the personal life of a man rather than a president. Afsar Hussain has made a lively translation of it. This play was staged at Kalidas Rangalaya, Patna on 14.6.2018.

It was the combined effect  of taut script, good acting, direction and stage setting that kept the viewers engaged throughout the whole show notwithstanding its belonging to thought-provoking genre allowing very little space for pure entertainment.

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Review by - Hemant Das 'Him'

Photographs - Binay Kumar
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