Striking Home

It was a subject so disturbing that director Sohaila Kapur waited five years before putting Tattoo, a German play about incest, on stage. 8220;Even then, many actors refused,8221; says Kapur of the Hungry Heart Festival. The play, which premieres on November 7, is 8220;two hours of grim intensity8221;.

Written by contemporary German playwright Dea Loher, Tattoo goes deep into a family where a father has been abusing his daughter over the years. A glimmer of hope emerges when the girl falls in love and makes her bid for freedom, only to be foiled by a weak lover and the ghosts of her past. The names and the costume have been Indianised: Loher8217;s protagonist Mr Baker becomes Mr Waris, played by theatre veteran Ramesh Thakur, while the rebel younger daughter Lulu becomes Lali. The abused daughter, Anita, has been played by Jyotsana Sharma, a far cry from her bubbly persona in Hungry Heart8217;s previous production Ouch. Mr Waris8217; wife, enacted by Smita Bharti, remains nameless 8212; a symbol of her psychological trauma that reduces her 8220;into an animal that8217;s been beaten into submission8221;. Kapur has added a few strains of music but it only adds to the tension. 8220;There is no comic relief, it remains intense all through,8221; says Kapur.

Produced in association with the Goethe Institute, Tattoo

has been treated like a book, with a screen lighting up

with chapter titles such as 8220;Love8221;, 8220;Marriage8221; and 8220;Tattoo8221; before every sequence. As one member of the cast says, 8220;The effect is cathartic.8221;

Tattoo will be staged at 7.30 pm at Akshara Theatre, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, on November 8. Contact: 23329506