What: Masterminds and Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts present Einstein, partnered by t2
Where: Kala Mandir
When: February 26-27, 7pm
The play: Written by Gabriel Emanuel, the Motley production is directed and performed by Naseeruddin Shah
Tickets: Priced Rs 700 to Rs 5,000, available on www.bookmyshow.com and at the venue
In 2014, when Naseeruddin Shah was asked to stage a new play for the Prithvi Theatre Festival in two months, he fished out the script of Canadian playwright Gabriel Emanuel’s one-man act Einstein, which the veteran actor had once read and kept aside. Before slipping on the Einstein wig, Shah spoke to t2 over phone from Mumbai...
What did you feel while preparing for Einstein?
Well, it has always been a learning experience to do characters of such stature, be it Ghalib, Gandhi or Einstein. Doing these characters proves a great boost to my self-esteem. These people are all geniuses. It is difficult to understand them. I never claim to have understood them. It takes many years to fully understand even one such character. And I was very bad in science. Numbers and numeric tables were nightmares in school. I never understood physics.
For Einstein, what struck me very deeply was that one line where the scientist is saying that he never realised he was a Jew until he was almost forcibly made aware that he was one. That resonated with me. The Nazis and their treatment of the Jews... the entire history of discrimination against the Jews... that was perhaps one of the greatest intolerance shown in the history of mankind.
Most of us know Einstein only as a scientist. What other shades will we get to see in the play?
Oh, there are several layers to this character. He was quite a guy, you see… an incorrigible flirt. He had married twice, had a great sense of humour, was jovial, very intelligent. One important aspect of his character was the guilt he carried in his heart as he believed that his research had contributed towards the Manhattan Project [a secret military project to produce the first US nuclear weapon]. He was very upset about it. He had said that if another world war was fought after the third one, it would be fought with rocks!
How is Einstein different or similar to Ismat Apa Ke Naam, the play that you brought to Calcutta twice in the past five years?
Well, the first distinct departure from my style of minimalist sets is that in Einstein you have an elaborate set. But I think there was a need to create the private world of the man. And since he was a scientist of the calibre of a genius, things evocative of the life and times of Einstein was necessary to bring on stage. The play is like attending a lecture or a private session or a fly-on-the-wall view of the man that Einstein was.
Then, the storytelling is different. In Ismat Apa, it is more of a one-man story-telling. But in this play, the man (Einstein) is ruminating… at times including the audience into his train of thoughts. The play is not at all a heavy scientific treatise. It is funny yet touching. There is an air of informality with the audience.
Einstein has two associate directors — your wife [Ratna Pathak Shah] and Arghya Lahiri. Tell us about them...
Well, both of them had been present in each and every rehearsal of this play. They have helped me with their views of the play. This is the first time I am working with Arghya. He does a great job with lighting design and has worked with many a big name in the theatre circuit.
Any new production you are working on?
At Motley, my son (Vivaan) and daughter (Heeba) are doing a piece called Conference of the Birds. I am getting involved with a couple of new productions with Pune-based Marathi playwright Mohit Takalkar. I am also working on an English play named The Nether.
