Shanaya Rafaat in Beyond Therapy

This year?s McDowell?s Signature Theatre Fest (co-presented by Sanskriti Sagar) opened with a bang but fizzled into a damp squib, before it comes to an end next weekend with its third import. What we have seen so far suggests that no criteria went into selecting the productions, because though the first one had thoughtful content by a respected American dramatist, the second did not (nor did it pretend to) stimulate the grey cells at all.

Probably thinking that Christopher Durang?s name rings no bells, the organisers did not advertise him as the author of Beyond Therapy. Obviously they know less than many educated Calcuttans, who can recognise Durang as a once controversial fringe writer who has now hit the big time. McDowell?s missed out on this potential clientele who would have seen it had they known it was his play.

In fact, Beyond Therapy marked Durang?s breakthrough into the mainstream in 1982. In it, he uses his savage brand of satire to demolish the American obsession with psychoanalysis and sexuality, a condition that has spread here with globalisation. He scarcely conceals his rage at the shrinks who run the lives of ordinary, perfectly normal, citizens with their weekly sessions of psychobabble. Therefore, Nadir Khan hits the nuts on the head by directing Radhika Da Cunha and Ranvir Shorey as totally insane therapists, the former with a Snoopy fetish and the latter an insecure Lothario seducing his patients. Contrasted to their caricatured eccentricities, which suit Durang?s own acting performances in popular revues, Shanaya Rafaat and Zafar Karachiwala seem quite wholesome as the lonely hearts. However, the homosexual played by Rohit Malkani falls into gay stereotyping, whereas Durang usually rips apart Americans for their homophobia.

With a title like Love Hua Once More ...!!, a theatre show is doomed. Even Bollywood would reject its initials. The playwright understands the embarrassment, for he manages to avoid any acknowledgement anywhere. This boringly formulaic Hinglish script is about a widower and divorcee falling in love (within seconds, over a phone call, no less) while mourning their losses. A disappointing Rati Agnihotri speaks and moves mechanically; Rajesh Khattar fares marginally better as a Farid Currim clone. Vandana Sajnani needs to do much more to succeed as director.