Theatre review: Dance Like A Man brings an intergenerational drama that challenges gender roles

A beautifully adorned living room, complete with antique furniture, a vintage wooden almirah, classical musical instruments, ghungroos, and a portrait of the family patriarch hanging on the wall, quietly ushers the audience into the lives of an elderly couple, Jairaj and Ratna Parekh, both bharatnatyam dancers and the central characters of Mahesh Dattani’s Dance Like a Man.
The longtime practitioners of the art form have passed their prime and now pin their hopes on reclaiming their fading fame through the reflected glory of their daughter Lata’s budding career as a dancer.
The play opens with romantic banter between Lata and her fiancé, Viswas, but soon turns into a gripping portrayal of ambitions and aspirations colliding with societal expectations, and the price one pays for defying rigid gender roles. As the story switches between past and present through clever stage design, seemingly innocuous drawing room conversations, within an outwardly modern Indian family of classical dancers, expose deep-seated biases around masculine and feminine duties and how society views the nurturer-provider binary. Seasoned actors like Ananth Mahadevan, Suchitra Pillai and Joy Sengupta take on dual roles, revealing the fault-lines within a heteronormative social construct.
Directed by Lillete Dubey, who also essays the role of an ageing Ratna with confidence, the play examines generational conflict through the lens of gender and patriarchy. Amritlal, Jairaj’s freedom-fighter father, ironically becomes the staunchest advocate of a narrow worldview, often ridiculing his own son for aspiring to be a classical dancer. Ratna’s character, on the other hand, is punished for being overambitious and choosing her own success over her husband’s career.
In this layered tale of familial legacies and tension, it is Viswas’ easy-going presence that brings moments of humour to the play. He becomes a part of the audience, witnessing the family’s complex dynamics unfold before him.
Presented by Dubey’s Primetime Theatre Co, this was the 705th show of Dance Like a Man over nearly three decades. “It all started at Kamani Auditorium, and we’re happy to be back in Delhi,” said the actor-director after the play drew a standing ovation from a packed theatre.