THE SHOW GOES ON: Naomi Ackerman Photo: Rajesh Kumar

After every show, women come up to tell Naomi Ackerman that her one-act play is the story of their lives. Everywhere she goes to perform Flowers Aren?t Enough, she hears a story more painful than the last one. After 800 shows, Ackerman?s play on domestic violence has changed her own life completely.

?Now, the first thing I ask the women who meet me after my show to tell me their stories, is, ?Are you safe now??? says the actress for whom, six years ago, Flowers Aren?t Enough was just a play she was commissioned to write. Not any more, though. What started as a small monologue meant for a welfare ministry seminar has transformed into a mission that Ackerman has set on, to tell the world about women who were suffering because they had no way out.

In 1998, Tel Aviv-based Ackerman was thrilled when she received a call from the Israeli government to write and perform a one-act monologue on abused women. ?I was just out of acting school and the commission made me feel I was finally making it as an actress,? she says, adding that when the project first came up, she didn?t think beyond the money that it offered. She interviewed four women who had been abused by their husbands, and set about writing the story of Michal, an upper-middle class woman who goes from being a seriously-wooed young girl to a battered wife to, finally, a woman who takes charge of her own life.

Flowers Aren?t Enough is an hour-long play now, followed by a 45-minute discussion where viewers are encouraged to come up with questions and comments, and aspects of domestic violence talked about that the actor admits she hadn?t even considered when writing the first draft. For example, one of the first questions she was asked after a show was about violence in homosexual relationships. Another time, a man came up to her and said that he had been beaten as a child, and the play brought such memories back. A show at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi this Wednesday had a dignified elderly man confessing to the 100-odd people present that his son was being harassed by his physically abusive daughter-in-law, and that he couldn?t even complain to the police because no one would believe him.

Ackerman says that her interaction with audiences has made her realise how she had taken her availability of choices for granted. Ackerman shuttled between the United States, where her father was a professor of religious studies, and Israel, where the family settled down when she was nine. Ackerman has even had a stint in Hollywood, where she acted in the 1996 film, Mindbender, based on the life of the magician, Uri Geller. A happy childhood, a promising career and a wonderful, though late, marriage at age 36, and Ackerman thought her world was complete.

Until Flowers Aren?t Enough happened to her, Ackerman hadn?t really given domestic abuse too much serious thought. ?It was just one of those things that didn?t happen to people like us, the upper-middle-class, educated people,? she says. It was when she started performing the then 20-minute play to audiences that she realised that it did happen to people like her all around the world. ?After every show, at least one woman would come up to narrate the story of her life. Each story had a different ending, none of the experiences were similar. I started incorporating these stories into my play,? says Ackerman. For 18 months, she?d add a little to the script after every performance ? convinced that it wouldn?t be complete otherwise.

It was Ackerman?s husband, Raphael Harrington, who put her back on track. Harrington was with her all the way ? he produced the show, took care of the lighting and travelled with her on her performances. ?One day, we were travelling in our car back from one of the shows, and I said there was one more line that I had to add to the script. He replied one hour was enough and I'd kill my audiences if I made it longer,? she says, adding that sometimes she still feels compelled to add to the script.

One of the reasons why the one-hour solo performance seems too much to handle is that her play, says Ackerman quoting her critics, lacks in humour. But the actress stresses that she finds nothing funny about domestic abuse. Humour, she insists though, comes naturally to her and she paid her way though acting school by working as a clown for birthday parties, walking on stilts and juggling to make children laugh. This time in India, she also visited Ahmedabad, where she and danseuse Mallika Sarabhai promised to team up for a production where ?there will be lots of humour?.

But Flowers Aren?t Enough has none of that. The narrative has irony, maybe a touch of black humour, but nothing that would make audiences laugh out loud. Ackerman?s Michal is a weepy woman on a stage that is bare, except for a chair, a box of tissues and a bouquet of flowers.

Michal?s story is an old one ? of the woman to whom a man brings flowers, says he cannot live without her, promises the world to her, and can even afford that. When she marries him, everyone thinks she?s made the best choice she could, for the man has the best credentials. But gradually, the autocrat within the loving husband surfaces. He narrows down her world, runs her down every chance that he gets, until her self-esteem is zero, and her life a hole she?s created for herself.

Initially, Michal is in denial, and believes she is responsible for all the beating she gets, that she must be doing something wrong. Realisation dawns when, one day, the flower shop that she owns makes more money than her husband?s earnings, and he beats her up for that. She decides to end her life, as no one, including her parents and friends would believe that her ?perfect? husband could be such a demon.

Michal doesn?t lose her life, but rediscovers herself instead. The play ends with her walking out of a hospital room 10 days after the incident, leaving behind a pleading, apologetic husband. The audience heaves a collective sigh of relief. Most of the viewers ? moved by Ackerman?s powerful performance ? hadn?t realised how involved they were with the play until then.

But the end of the play is hardly the end of the show. In walks Ackerman, demanding all the lights to be lit so that she can see the audience?s reactions, and the real stories tumble out. Members of the audience commend her, ask her for a sequel, and tell her they identify with her. Ackerman tells them she?s glad if her message even reaches out to a few people.