Millennium Post · New Delhi
11 Mars 2013 · Jhinuk Sen
FRANCE OPENS GATES TO INDIA
NEW DELHI : Described as, 'A theatrical journey through Marguerite Duras approach I to love and desire', French play, created in English GATES TO INDIA SONG, had its world premier at the residence of the French Ambassador on 9 March.
The text of the play is based on India Song and The Vice-Consul written by Marguerite Duras and directed by Éric Vigner. The cast comprised of Nandita Das (playing the role of Anne-Marie Stretter), Suhaas Ahuja (the Vice-Consul), Subodh Maskara (Ambassador/Club Secretary), Jim Sarbh (Charles Rossett) and Neeraj Kabi (Peter Morgan).
For the first time on the eve of celebrating the centenary of Duras' birth, the India dreamt in The Vice-Consul and the India Song by the author of Hiroshima mon amour meets the reality of India. Duras is one of the most important French authors of the 20lh century.
The play revolves around the story of a love lived in an India of the 1930's, fixed in the climax of passion. As the scenes unfold in dialogues intertwined with the suffocating heat of India. the travels and the travails of
the Vice-Consul who on an assuming sultry evening in the then Calcutta, screams out his love for Anne-Marie Stretter.
Nandita Das as Annie-Marie Stretter is the ultimate Durassian heroine who travels through the writer's body of work and Suhaas Ahuja as the Vice-Consul captures the imagination of the audience with his stoic resilience that crumbles in to a haunting and troubled expression of love.
The play will be travelling to Mumbai and Kolkata as well and to give GATES TO INDIA SONG the right feel, specific venues have been selected for both the cities. While in Mumbai, the Prithvi Theatre and the NCPA will host the pIay, Kolkata will have the tale unfold in the courtyard of Tagore House.
The Delhi chapter had the site-specific piece unfold in the Residence of the French Ambassador on a perfect Saturday evening. Starting off in the interiors, the story and the play travels to the garden where the climactic end braces the characters.