We have seen various versions of “The House of Bernarda Alba” by Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936), Spanish poet and dramatist, on the Delhi stage. The most outstanding being by E. Alkazi which he directed for National School of Drama Repertory Company about two decades ago. Adapted in Urdu as “Din Ke Andhere” by J. N. Kaushal, it featured Zohra Segal in the leading role, creating a haunting portrait of a tyrannical matriarch.
We watched a new version of the play as “Bebe ka Chamba” in Hindustani interspersed with Punjabi which was presented by Katyayani recently at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi. The highlight of the production is the music score by Madan Bala Sindhu, the former great opera performer in the musical plays by Sheila Bhatiya. Her music reinforces the mood of depression, doom and the agony of sexual repression. It is delicately woven into the basic structure of the play. Here we discover a current of youthful protest and revolt against female oppression.
Adapted by Neena Wagh, the action is set in the newly partitioned Punjab in the year of 1948. Director Sohaila Kapur, seasoned actress and stage director, has imaginatively designed her production. This is a masterly written dramatic piece in which on stage and offstage actions interact in a way that keeps on mounting the tension leading to a climax that is shocking and stunning in its impact. Sohaila’s treatment of offstage sounds is apt enough to act as a catalyst to set off chain of actions on the stage.
The play opens in the house of Bebe with all women inmates. She is mother of five daughters, all are unmarried. The mother is domineering and proud of her family status. In her arrogance, she feels that there is no suitable match for her daughters in the area. The family is mourning the death of the husband of Bebe and she does not permit her daughters to interact with the outside world, especially with men. Even she does not allow her daughters to hear the conversations of male relatives assembled outside the house to mourn the death.
The plain and sickly eldest daughter is likely to be married. The young man who has agreed to marry her is attracted to her property. The youngest daughter is full of life and passion. She is having a secret affair with the same young man who is supposed to marry her elder sister. Other daughters of Bebe fall in love with the same man. The sisters are jealous of each other. They mock, fight and hate in subdued manner. The atmosphere of secrecy, jealousy and female rivalry is simmering but Bebe appears to be ignorant of what is happening in her house. Finally, the mother comes to know what is happening in the lives of her daughters.
One night in the dark, sounds of arrival of a stranger are heard. An infuriated mother fires with the gun to the direction from which the sounds are heard, resulting in the tragedy that Bebe has never dreamed of – that shatters her arrogance of superiority of wealth. Though the young man occupies a prominent place in creating the dramatic conflict but he never appears on the stage. As an object of female passion, his image is disturbingly felt by all female dramatis personae.
The director and the performers have retained the mounting tension in the production from beginning to end. The judicious use of property on the stage reflects the aesthetic sense prevailing in a Punjabi family in the late forties and fifties.
An adequately rehearsed production, the members of the cast give impressive performances. Nirupama Verma as Bebe brings to the fore the tyrannical, domineering and bigotry of a widow who fanatically clings to obsolete concept of female virginity. Her style of delivery, movements and gait make her performance convincing. Though shaken with the personal tragedy she refuses to learn from it. Amita Rana’s Gauri, the youngest daughter, exudes the emotional intensity of an innocent girl passionately in love with a young man. Her Gauri has the courage to defy her domineering mother and commits suicide for the sake of her love, elevating her character to the status of a tragic hero.
Through the character of Leelavati, the director has imparted a new interpretation to the play, who defies her mother by leaving the house in her mother’s very presence. Played by Meenakshi Thapa admirably, Leelavati symbolises the ray of hope for the liberation of women trapped in the repressive feudal world. Anuradha Vyas as Santosh, the eldest daughter, cheated out of hope of marriage and Lotty Alaric as Ramratti the maid of Bebe, give creditable account of themselves.
