Love in Two Acts

NEARLY a year before Ratna Pathak Shah and Naseeruddin Shah as Mrs Patrick Campbell and George Bernard Shaw respectively engaged in a banter,argument and fight through their letters in the play Dear Liar,they went through the text multiple times to understand and chew on it. When they opened the play in mid-1993,they had a great time with it and even took it to several Indian cities. Later on,Motley got busy with other plays and the shows of Dear Liar became sporadic.

This week,in Mumbai,nearly 20 years since the Shah couple had first staged the play under the direction of the late Satyadev Dubey,they are reviving it. This time,the play comes with certain modifications. Our elder son Imaad was around six or seven years old when he first watched this play. He never wanted to see it again. After he grew up,he told us that he did not like to see us fight on stage, says Ratna. This made them rethink the way they were doing the play. Mrs Campbell and Shaws fights were out of love. However,if young Imaad took away only that part,we realised there was something fundamentally wrong with the way were doing it, she says. This recently led to several changes they have incorporated in the Jerome Kilty play. They presented the new version of Dear Liar when they travelled to Canada last year.

The Shahs are known for their love of literature and revisiting the plays they love. This play,with its beautiful language and witty exchanges between the main characters,has been one their favourites. According to Naseeruddin,the sheer joy of delivering these dialogues brings them back to it. It is a taxing play and demanded a lot from Naseer and me, says Ratna. They plan to travel with the play to others cities,too.