Breathe In Breathe Out

ALLEN J MENDONCA / TNN / Sep 25, 2002, 21:15 IST

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From The Zoo Story (1959) to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), from A Delicate Balance (1966) to Seascape (1975), Edward Albee's works resonated with the spirit of the times.

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">From The Zoo Story (1959) to Who''s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), from A Delicate Balance (1966) to Seascape (1975), Edward Albee''s works resonated with the spirit of the times. Yet, he wasn''t the logical successor to such American geniuses as Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and Eugene O''Neill. His works had more in common with such European playwrights as Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. The 80s saw Albee struggling with his craft, but come the 90s and he offered us the elegant, electrifying, heart-rending Three Tall Women (1994) that explored the theme of mortality and existence. Now theatre lovers in Bangalore can experience this searingly insightful, witty, compassionate play that''s been adapted by Sandhya Divecha and Lillete Dubey and reschristened Breathe In Breathe Out, at the Chowdiah Mmemorial Hall on Sept 28 and 29 at 7 pm. Lillete, last seen in the Mira Nair''s Monsoon Wedding with daughter Neha, had staged Mahesh Dattani''s Dance Like a Man and Thirty Days In September in Bangalore last year, to critical acclaim. "Bangalore is a wonderful City and I love bringing my plays here,'''' she says. Presented by Britannia and The Taj West End, Breathe In Breathe Out zooms in on a 92-year-old woman at the end of her life, telling us her story, her highs, her lows. No holds barred reminescences, memories...revealed and examined in two taut Acts. Albee once described his work as "an examination of the American scene, an attack on the substitution of artificial for real values in our society, a condemnation of complacency, cruelty, and emasculation and vacuity, a stand against the fiction that everything in this slipping land of our is peachy-keen.'''' Lillete''s adaptation takes on an Indian perspective, the characters A, B and C representing the different periods in the life of this aged woman. "Though my main area of interest is original Indian writing, occasionaly one comes across a play that is universal, like a Waiting for Godot that soars above the specifics of region, culture, race, politics..... one whose common denominator is our shared humanity.'''' Breathe In Breathe Out starring Shernaz Patel, Suchitra Pillai and Lillete is definitely a must-see. Tickets available at KC Das and Super Market on Brigade Road. </div> </div>

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