Theatre Review: Burn My Diaries

Director: Akhshay Gandhi
Cast: Shweta Desai
Genre: Drama
Duration: 70 mins
Rating: 3
Plot: A solo performance concerning mental health and well-being, this is the story of a woman attempting to defy her condition (schizophrenia) and limitations to experience the world as one person. The play traces how she discovers ways to coexist with her many selves, and tries to show the mind’s inner workings when the line between real and imaginary blurs, when time fluidly rushes in different directions, and when memory and experience merge.
Review: Solo acts are never easy to pull off, considering that the task of capturing the audience’s attention for over an hour rests solely on the shoulders of a single actor. Shweta Desai manages to pull this off to a large extent, since she portrays a range of characters — all of who are within the protagonist. With more and more focus on mental health, a play that explores what it must be to be schizophrenic is welcome; this play does, in fact, take you into the mind of such a person and gives you a glimpse of what it must be like to battle the many people who you are. Considering how complex the subject is, the setting is equally simple — one chair for a prop, no dress changes and nothing else to divert your attention. The different characters are clearly defined, and Shweta pulls them off with ease. The play of lights adds greatly to the narrative, and at times, is so effective that Shweta actually looks smaller on stage than she actually is.
Final word: Does Burn My Diaries get the point across? Yes. Is it an engaging play? Largely. The play does give an insight into the mind of a schizophrenic, and what it must be like to walk in one’s shoes. While it does tend to feel a little long at times, this doesn’t take away from the quality of the performance.
Review rating:
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