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Surprisingly the wife has a reason to grow sympathetic to a mistress (kept, रखैल) of her husband when she learns why the name of that mistress was uttered by her husband as his last word. The typical hostility (enmity, शत्रुता) between the two women who figured in the life of one man needs no elaboration (विस्तार से कहने की जरूरत नहीं है). Both are as spiteful (jealous, डाही) to each other as you can imagine and yea, the abomination (hatred, नफरत) is in full bloom at both ends. The play accounts the verbal fight between the wife and the mistress of George Washigton, the first president of Amierica after his death. Martha is the legal wife and Dolly is the concubine, a kept woman with whom George spent years leaving his wife before he returned to her.
Martha (wife) has called Dolly (mistress) at the graveyard of George Washington to quench her spiteful curiosity as how she felt while demolishing the marital life of a devotee wife who constantly extended love and support to her husband. Dolly says she never thought about the hurt feeling of the wife of her man and whether her action will hurt her severely. Then comes the cardinal question,"Did you really love my husband from the core of your heart?" And remarkably 'No' is the reply of Dolly. Martha is amazed how a highly sensible George can fall for (fall in love, प्रेम में फँस जाना) a woman who admittedly was not loving him! The conversations turns from warm to burningly hot. And Martha is not in a position to give a respectful reply on the counter-query of Dolly "How were the moments of her intimate relationship with George Washigton. She somehow replies with a hope to elicit more info on the illegal relationship of her husband with his concubine (kept woman). The drama proceeds in natural pace in a perfectly realistic set-up (पूरी तरह से वास्तविक परिस्थितियों में आगे
बढ़ता है). Martha is almost at the brink of breaking her belief in the word of faithfulness. Man is the biggest betrayer (unfaithful, धोखेबाज) on this planet. This is the moment when Martha reveals that yes it is true that she never loved George but the further fact is that even George never loved her. George and she were just spending time with each other and slept in different rooms of same building. The noble purpose behind this drama was to create a real reunion of the couple whose relationship had evaporated in the tempest of political activism. She categorically says that George always used to talk about his wife Martha only for whom he had a deep love in his heart solely. But he was quite perturbed (uneasy, क्षुब्ध) by the Martha's views about for joining politics and becoming president of the country. George was neither willing to join politics nor to become a president. He, he only wished to spend time in the arms of his charming wife Martha.
There were only two characters namely Martha (Archana Soni) and Dolly (Annu Priya). Both of them looked graceful western ladies. The volume of dialogues delivered by Archana was consistently well-audible giving her an edge over Annu on this front. Though Annu, having a lissome (nimble,लचीला) physique also acted quite well winning hearts of the audience. The only problem with her was her dialogues were becoming inaudible quite frequently. Either she or sound system might have been responsible for it. The emphasis (accent, बलाघात) in dialogue delivery, facial expressions and body language of both artists were impressive. The credit also goes to the director Bhupendra Kumar for getting better outputs from the established good actors. Though there was scope of getting the actors standing on front side of the stage also giving more clearer and effective view to the audience the point seems to be missed out. Lights were by Randhir Kumar who successfully maintained to ensure sombre and cumbrous (sad and burdensome, विषादपूर्ण और बोझिल) scene of a graveyard with a dim though clearly visible light thrown all through the play. The stage setting with a large grave with a flag on a raised platform was able to signify the sublime befitting to a president. Any adornment (decoration, अलंकरण) was deliberately avoided with greenery on the floor and a big bench lying in the right back side of the stage.
The script of the play crafted by Miro Gavrom is precise and cast light on the personal life of a man rather than a president. Afsar Hussain has made a lively translation of it. This play was staged at Kalidas Rangalaya, Patna on 14.6.2018.
It was the combined effect of taut (exact, कसा हुआ) script, good acting, direction and stage setting that kept the viewers engaged throughout the whole show notwithstanding it's belonging to thought-provoking genre (विचारोत्तेजक शैली) allowing very little space for pure entertainment.
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