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Feroz Abbas Khan’s new theatrical presentation, 'Letters of Suresh', depends on audience participation to draw the larger picture
A scene from the play 'Letters of Suresh'
A scene from the play 'Letters of Suresh'
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Noted theatre director and playwright Feroz Abbas Khan may be known for his lavish musicals and big scale spectacles like 'Mughal-e-Azam: The Musical, Raunaq' & 'Jassi and The Great Indian Musical: Civilization to Nation' (the production which marked the launch of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai), but Khan feels most comfortable in the minimalist and intimate approach of story-telling.

Remember 'Tumhari Amrita (1992)?' Performed with veterans Shabana Azmi and Farooque Shaikh, or take for instance his early comedy All The Best, and Saalgirah written by playwright Javed Siddiqui with Anupam Kher, or Mahatma v/s Gandhi, based on relationship between Gandhi and his son, Hiralal. Khan, who was the first artistic director of the Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, has gone back to his roots with his new play 'Letters of Suresh', adapted from Indian-American playwright and Pulitzer Prize-finalist Rajiv Joseph’s drama by the same name. The play recently had its first-ever performance in India at NMACC.

Marking the stage debut of Vir Hirani, son of filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani, the play is composed entirely of letters featuring four actors performing a series of monologues. Here strangers get connected through letters. They find solace and a newer understanding of life and relationships through the medium. It was while Mughal-e-Azam was running at the prestigious Lincoln Theatre in New York last year that Khan got an opportunity to meet Joseph. “I was fascinated by Joseph’s writing. It stayed with me,” says Khan.

the cast
the cast

Nonetheless, it was a difficult premise to adapt for the stage. But then Khan had the experience of Tumhari Amrita—a play through letters—backing him. “The play is also complex and layered, it is not linear and jumps time also. It was a challenge to engage the audience,” says Khan. The work sees Suresh, an origami wunderkind based in the US, read out letters he’s written to Father Hashimoto, a priest based in Nagasaki.

“It was a phenomenal experience,” says new kid on the block, Hirani. “I always wanted to work with him (Khan). Plus, the script is so deep and philosophical,” he says. Talking about his character, Hirani says, “I am completely different from the character I portray. Suresh is a genius at origami, whereas, the only thing I can do is fold a paper rocket as we did in school. But it was a wonderful journey portraying the varied nuances of the character. Now that we have staged the show in front of a live audience, I feel close to Suresh and can relate to the audience’s emotions. It’s the audience that energises you, and you give the energy back to the audience in turn—something like playing ping-pong with the audience,” he explains.

Considering the structure of the play was complicated, it needed a lot of workshops. “The idea was that when they perform it shouldn’t look like they are acting,” says Khan, adding that he wanted the characters to open up their lives with the audience. Adds co-actor Palomi Ghosh, “We are actually performing the letters, not just reading them. In that moment, the audience becomes the person you are addressing. Every letter is different from the other so, as an actor, I had to explore different ways of performing them.”

Like Khan’s other works, Letters of Suresh also relies on audience participation. “It is a very delicate and sensitive piece of work. It takes a lot on the audience to figure out, pick up all the pieces and join them together,” says the director. As pieces of a puzzle come together to present a beautiful picture, Letters of Suresh ends up as a cohesive narrative sewn together by the actors and the audience.

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