From one Thing to Another
IT was originally meant to be a play on the global financial crisis and Belvoir, an acclaimed Australian theatre company, had commissioned writer-actor Lally Katz to work on a script. But the final product was an entirely different story—a real-life encounter from Katz’s visit to New York. “When Lally sent us the script based on the original idea, there were many things that we liked about it, but we didn’t think it could be ready to stage the following year. But we loved the way she spoke about how she came to write the script, and the other things that were going on in her life, that we thought that she should make her life into a play instead,” says Brenna Hobson, executive director of Belvoir.
Stories I Want to Tell You in Person is about a woman (Katz) trying to strike a balance between her personal life and her consuming writing career. “All my life I have been afraid that if I found love, I wouldn’t be able to write. This led me to choosing many bad and unrealistic relationships, which were great to write about, but made me lonely and sometimes sad. I wanted to work out how to be able to write and still have a happy love life. During the time I was wondering how to do this, I met a man I really liked,” describes Katz.
Around the same time, Katz travelled to New York and met a psychic named Cookie, who told her she could have all the things she dreamed of, if she paid her to remove a curse placed on the writer. “The story is about what happens with her and another psychic, and about my quest to make it work with the guy, and all the crazy things that happen,” Katz adds.
Being part of a play based on her own experience was quite a challenging task, says Katz, who is travelling to India for the first time, and is taking the play to five different cities here. “A lot of my writing is personal, but this was the first time that I was actually going to be saying it to an audience. I was also worried about what the people in my life, who I talk about in the show, would think, especially my boyfriend. I was terrified that I would ruin our relationship. But as it turned out, the more personal the stories were, the more the audiences (in Australia) connected with them, ” she says. As for her India shows, Katz is as eager as she can get. “I can’t believe that I get to be here, and sharing my work. It’s thrilling,” she signs off.
February 12. Tickets (`350) available at the venue, Tagore Theatre, Thiruvananthapuram. 6.30 pm. Details: 2320426