A play that featured at the Bengaluru Habba captivated the imaginations of everyone present in that audience, we were there too and decided to review the play from our differing perspectives
A play that featured at the Bengaluru Habba captivated the imaginations of everyone present in that audience, we were there too and decided to review the play from our differing perspectives
The Bengaluru Habba might be over but we did take back quite a bit from one of the performances that we enjoyed. Rukmini Vijayakumar enthralled us with her portrayal ofu00a0Aung San Suu Kyi and Prakash Belawadi directed the performance to perfection.
Here are two reviews by our Guide reporters who had very different perspectives of the play...
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Dressed in white, she stood under the arc light narrating a dark tale. Rukmini Vijaykumar dons the garb of Aung San Suu Kyi, the political prisoner and Nobel Peace winner who is still under house arrest. A marvel in every move, she was indeed a treat to watch.
Her involvement in the character was evident giving the performance an extra edge. The change in her body language as she swung back and forth into the past and present was seamless.
The pain of a woman, a fighter and a survivor was eloquently expressed with restraint and didn't seem to go overboard. However, on the flipside, the play was a tad too long.
The change of time and Rukmini's portrayal of different characters could not kill time as it should have, and that left me with a non-stop bother, all I wanted to know if it would end right then!
For somebody, who is not aware of Burmese history and the Myanmarese Junta, the narrative becomes a bit of a drag. However, the sweet and sad love story between Aung San Suu Kyi and her love Michael adds a sublime essence to the play.
Despite the monotonous strain and the overall failure of the play for me, the play will be remembered as one of the finest in terms of direction, acting and presentation to have ever graced the stage of Ranga Shankara.
Smart, to the dot
The Lady of Burma was a play par excellence. Politically speaking, it was on dot with its facts and dramatized the events in a way ordinary souls could comprehend the nations bloody past and present. Aung San Suu Kyi, a political prisoner placed under house arrest for almost 14 out of the past 20 years has been spearheading the spread of democracy in Myanmar.
The play very appropriately focuses on the protagonist's life, troubles and persecutions undergone from the time she decided to take charge of the students' movement to fight for democracy. The narrative traces her life from the time of her father, the revolution that followed his assassination and eventually her life.
The play was a great source of information for those who were interested in history, with neat descriptions of the history of events that took place. It portrayed the sporadic protests that were organized by students against the military rule.
Rukmini also brought up the 1962 student massacred several students at the Rangoon University.
This event has been forgotten by most of the world and can be compared to the Tianmen massacre. Rukmini's narrative also mocked the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) under whom security forces killed thousands of demonstrators.
Her narration of the elections that took place in May 1990 and her National League for Democracy (NLD) winning was bang on. Finally, the nomenclature change to State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) by the military junta now headed by Than Shwe was superbly explained and dramatized with spots of wit and grief.
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