To be or not to be

A Malayalam adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Respectful Prostitute will be staged in the city on June 4

Rehearsal of the play, Manyayaaya Veshya, in progress

Race, gender, class, crime and punishment are protagonists in Jean-Paul Sartre’s play

The Respectful Prostitute.

Manyayaaya Veshya, a Malayalam adaptation of Sartre’s play, will be staged by Thiruvananthapuram KALA, a city-based theatre group, on June 4.

Set in the racially tense period of the forties in the US, the play deals with a white sex worker’s predicament when she witnesses a crime committed against a black man by Thomas, son of a Senator. But Lizzie, the sex worker, becomes a pawn at the hands of the powerful white lobby and she falls in with their nefarious schemes.

“It is not an easy work to be adapted for the stage. Perhaps, that’s the reason why it has not been performed much here. Sartre’s stance on racism and the attitude of the American society are conveyed through a powerful and complex narrative. On one hand, it is about racial discrimination. On the other hand, it explores the dilemma of a woman,” says Raja Varier, director of the play written by TM Abraham. He adds that the work is an acid test for any stage artiste.

The events unfold over a period of 24 hours in a room. S Mohanakumaran Nair, secretary of the theatre group, says it has been a challenging experience for the team. “The play has so many layers to it. Also, we had to work carefully on certain scenes, especially those between Fred, a white power monger, and Lizzie,” says Mohanakumaran Nair who plays Fred.

Sushama, who plays Lizzie, too admits that it was difficult to get into the character. “Here is a woman who wants to be truthful and stick to what she sees but after a point she succumbs to emotional tactics of a group of people. The complexities in the character was the biggest challenge.”

Watch the play at Hassan Marikkar Hall on June 4, 6.30 pm.