HYDERABAD: Theatre actor Mohammad Ali Baig enthralled the audience with his autobiographic narrative, Under an Oak Tree recently at Taj Deccan. The play was on the memoirs of his childhood spent in a large farm of the city, post the era when Hyderabad was no longer a princely estate and his venture into the glamorous world of adfilms.
Defined by the shade of the oak tree under which he spent much time, the play brought the different emotions of a boy’s journey to manhood, shaped by a unique universe unlike any other. He was caught between an adolescent boy’s decisions in life playing the roles of an obedient son following his father’s legacy, societal obligations and his heart’s desires as well.
A lot of the dialogues won the audience with apt lines that describe his naive childhood followed by an engaging, narrative modulation constituting for solid drama in various scenes. A multitude of emotions such as happiness, grief, self realisation etc are displayed in the duration of one hour. The story unfolds through a monologue of nostalgic recollection of the young boy’s past in the voice of Baig.
The period stage consisted of a makeshift oak tree in the background, antiquities, sepia tones and Persian rugs with lighting that spoke about the moods and emotions the young boy rendered. The scene in which the father dies is the most dramatic scene using a Monsoon backdrop along with rain falling over the protagonist under the oak tree.
The director, whose play will have its UK premiere in London and Mumbai’s Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, said, “It is a slice of the journey of an unnamed narrator about musings of childhood, groomed by the mother, young adulthood, self-discovery, and spiritual awakening that all of us can relate to. It is more of a storytelling than a play.”