“I really am all alone.” These are the final words uttered in Little Theatre's adaptation of French playwright Jean Genet’s Deathwatch , titled Rajdhani .
Those five words sum up the tragedy that is the life of Iqbal, one of the three main characters in the play. This play is not so much about the plot — there is almost no action till the ending — but is more about the conversation, the mind games, the personalities, and the agendas of Iqbal, Muna, and Haraya.
The original play involves three prisoners locked up in a cell, where as in Rajdhani , the three main characters are runaway boys living on the platform of a railway station. Jean Genet chose the prison cell to elicit a sense of sadness and hopelessness. It seems in the Indian context, the same could be expressed through children living on a platform, not knowing when or how they will get their next meal, in a place where death could be just around the corner. In a sense, the platform is their prison cell; they have no home outside of it.
As in the French original, Manu and Iqbal are both attached to Haraya, who is the kingpin of about half the station. They both desire to be Haraya’s most trusted friend, but each go about the process differently.
The actors who play Manu and Iqbal do a great job of portraying their contrasting personalities and emotions. Manu openly confesses his attachment to Haraya, and speaks almost like a lover when he talks about him, his high pitched voice adding to the overall effect of a desire to be more than just a friend. Iqbal’s approach is the opposite. He voices his dislike for Haraya, but the audience can see that it is a facade for his desire to be just like him and to fill a void left by a childhood experience.
There can only be one who is Haraya’s right hand man, or perhaps none at all. And that is the tragedy of the play.
