In spite of uniformly good performances and Aniruddha Khutwad’s direction to match, Pradeep Vaidya’s Marathi adaptation of Louise Page’s original English play TISSUE suffers from turning its premise into an overdrawn emotional thesis. What could have been socially and politically relevant in the scheme of Feminist Litearature in the 1970s appears dated and proves to be even so in the Indian context today.
The original play was in fact first produced in the UK in 1978 and while its subject of breast cancer remains contemporary, it no longer is as taboo or as deadly a form of cancer as it once was. Thanks to awareness campaigns and medical and technological advances women are in a much better position to deal with the problem than they once were. While there is no denying the psychological and even the social pressures accompanying such ailments one would find it quite strange to magnify them out of proportion today.
As such EK RIKAAMI BAAJU becomes one long saga of shock, acceptance and eventual celebration of the feminine spirit. Interestingly enough the play becomes a ‘play’ of Ritu’s (Geetanjali Kulkarni) struggle with the disease and takes the form of a series of episodes in which her life moves back and forth since she discovers that she has breast cancer. Episodes from her childhood underline the significance of the female archetype in which breasts are signifiers of feminine beauty, sexual attraction, maternal instincts and therefore a very desirous physical attribute.
In her present state Ritu is traumatized by the doctor’s report and the mastectomy that she has to undergo. In the process her relationships with her boyfriend, her parents, her brother and her childhood friend are revealed. It seems odd that for an educated, working and a self-reliant girl with a keen sense of personal identity, Ritu should fall for the familiar trap of socially determined feminine codes and ignorant patient behaviour. But in this context it is easier to accept this as a character flaw than an inconsistency on the part of the writer.
Having said that it would be an interesting exercise to find out how much of the socio-politico feminsist concerns of the original have actually been highlighted in this adaptation. For instance the original text apparently looks at how the word breast and its synonyms like tits or merely chest create their own meanings as they are spoken by the protagonist Sally and characters like her brother and mother. Adaptations can indeed be very tricky.
Geetanjali Kulkarni as Ritu is supported by Veena Jamkar and Padmanabh Bind. Both Veena Jamkar and Padmanabh Bind essay the multiple characters that are part of Ritu’s life. Veena Jamkar is particularly good and fulfills her characters with remarkable ease. The stage design is minimalist and the scene change is nearly effortless. Had EK RIKAAMI BAAJU not made a mountain out of a mole hill, these positive aspects of the production would have enhanced it further.
*The writer is Editor of this site, a theatre critic and an academic keenly interested in Theatre & Performance Studies.
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