See saw : The Magic Pill & its After Effects

After a gap of 14 years,Sambhog Se Sanyas Tak — a play written and directed by the legendary Satyadev Dubey — returns to the stage in Mumbai next month. The English adaptation of the play,The Magic Pill,will be directed by Hidayat Sami with a new cast that is yet to be finalised. The play,a farce,remains one of the late thespian’s better-known written works. It is a hilarious take on Indian mythology with interesting characters that include devas,apsaras,meditating sages,gandharvas,evil kings,a do-gooder ghost and a whole lot of confused mortals. Thrown into this is a magic pill that transforms men into women. Sami had acted in the play in 1998-99 as Gandharv Sen. In the new production,he plans to reduce the length of the play to two hours with an interval. That apart,he will remain faithful to the original play,which was translated to English by Dubey. Sami also wants to run Dubey’s group,Theatre Unit,with the help of some other theatre personalities of the city.