Anjan Dutt to direct a play again

After a break of a couple of years, Anjan Dutt is directing a play again. The veteran actor is currently prepping up the script, which is based on

Arthur Miller

’s Death of a Salesman and the play, Salesmaner Mrityu, will premiere on stage in January next year. While Anjan himself will play the iconic character of Willy Loman, which was once portrayed by Dustin Hoffman, Sudipa Basu will play his wife, Linda, and Suprabhat Das, his son Biff. Neel Dutt will score the music for the play, while Chhanda Dutt will design the costumes.

Death of a Salesman is a seminal work of Miller that has seen adaptations worldwide, including the acclaimed film that features Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman and John Malkovich as his son. In Kolkata, Rudraprasad Sengupta played Willy and Goutam Halder played Biff in

Nandikar

’s adaptation, Feriwalar Mrityu. “Hoffman is my reference. Though the characters in my play speak Bengali, the play is set in New York during the depression of the late ’50s,” Anjan told us.

Earlier, it was touted that Anjan will be directing Bertolt Brecht’s Mr Puntila and His Man Matti. So why this change of mind? “I thought of working on Puntila because I understand Brecht better. Puntila, a political play, delves into the ideas of democracy and fascism. Then I thought I would do something that my middle-class audience will better relate to. In Death of a Salesman, the crisis is something we all go through. Every middle-class Bengali is fighting to get a little more. If you have a car, you want a bigger one, if you have a house, you want another flat; you want your son to settle abroad, at least in Bangalore. Where is the end of this consumerist rat race? I wanted to portray this crisis through Willy’s plight,” he said.

Anjan’s last directorial work was Medha, which was based on

Peter Shaffer

’s Amadeus. While staging it, he had announced that he wouldn’t be directing any more plays. Then why this change of mind? “I realised I genuinely love theatre and can’t live without it. I realised that there is a lot of love and passion for theatre in Kolkata. But a complete professional plan to make a money-making production is not there. Whatever money I earn by selling tickets I pay my cast and crew. After working with Koushik (Sen) in Taraye Taraye, I realised there’s an audience who wants to watch me on stage. Seven consecutive shows — all houseful. I told myself, ‘To hell with my promise’. I decided to direct again for these people who love my work,” Anjan told us.

About the music, he said, “We’re planning to use a lot of jazz and blues. Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, et al, will be an integral part of the soundscape. Moreover, advertisements will play a very important role in this production. I will bombard the stage with ad films, billboards and all.”