14 Sep 2018  |   01:29am IST

Theatre is part of every Goan’s DNA: Lilette Dubey

Noted film and theatre personality Lillette Dubey of Mumbai will be staging two of her latest English plays in Panjim. Dubey’s theatre company, Primetime Theatre, which has done 3,000 shows around the world with its acclaimed original Indian English plays, will stage their recent hit plays, ‘Gauhar’ and ‘Salaam Noni Appa’, at Kala Academy

 

Noted film and theatre personality Lillette Dubey

is of the opinion that theatre is part of every Goan’s DNA, thanks to the rich tradition of Konkani tiatr in Goa. Lillette will be travelling to Goa in early October with two of her latest, English plays, ‘Gauhar’ and ‘Salaam Noni Appa’. The plays will be staged at the Kala Academy on October 3 and 4, 2018 respectively, revealed Lillette in a telephonic interview with Herald Café on Wednesday.

“I love Goa and it is certainly one of my favourite places. Every time I set foot in Goa, my cares and worries seem to float away. In fact, there was a time when I seriously wanted to buy a bungalow in Goa,” Lillette said.

Heaping praise on the tiatr art form, Lillette said that she liked the fact that it combined the best of three performing art forms, namely singing, dancing and acting. “Konkani tiatr allows actors to exploit all their skills on stage and it has a rich texture of earthiness to it,” she said.

According to Lillette, it is fascinating to see how tiatr inevitably tackles current, topical events and how the tiatr movement is strong across the state of Goa.

Speaking about her theatre company, Primetime Theatre, which will be soon completing thirty years, Lillette said that she started her company primarily to preserve the ‘Indian-English’ voice in Indian theatre. “Our plays are rooted in the Indian ethos and enacted in everyday Indian English, just as we speak on a daily basis,” she said.

According to her, every attempt is made to pick original scripts written by writers like Mahashweta Devi and Girish Karnad and theatre scripts written by Indian playwrights like Mahesh Dattani and Partap Sharma. “We are consciously building up a body of work for future generations to work with,” Lillette said.

She is clearly excited about visiting Goa with her two plays. “Goan audiences are extremely enthusiastic.I expect a full house on both days,” she said.

Speaking about the first play, ‘Gauhar’, Lillette said that it was the story of Gauhar Jaan, the legendary Hindustani classical singer of yesteryears. “Gauhar was arguably the first Indian singer to get her voice recorded on a vinyl record way back in 1902. It is the fascinating tale of this singer who once said, ‘People will forget me, but they will not forget my music!’”

Similarly, she is also equally excited about her second play, ‘Salaam Noni Appa’, a comedy that has been adapted from Twinkle Khanna’s book, ‘The Legend of Laxmi Prasad’. “Twinkle has this great skill to observe and write about everyday life,” Lillette said.