Brief Candle: Three Plays brings together the most recent work of Sahitya Akademi award-winner Mahesh Dattani as he continues to explore subjects that need to be addressed but are relentlessly brushed under the carpet of middle-class morality—incest, gender bias and death.
The title play is set in a hospital ward where terminally ill patients put up an energetic farce in memory of their friend who died of cancer. The blurring of lines between their romp and the events of their own lives leads to revelations that are both tragic and life-affirming. In the radio play The Girl Who Touched the Stars, Bhavna—now an astronaut ready to take off on a mission into outer space—reflects on her past in this moment of glory, only to confront the bitter truths she has tried to ignore all her life. The fragile fabric of familial relations is ripped apart in Thirty Days in September when memories of a traumatic past return to haunt a mother and her daughter.
Playful and poignant, devastating and redemptive, these critically acclaimed plays lay bare the far-reaching consequences of the choices we make, confirming Dattani as one of India’s foremost dramatists.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mahesh Dattani
Mahesh Dattani, born in Bangalore on 7 August 1958 studied in Baldwin's High School and St. Joseph's College of Arts and Science, Bangalore. He has worked as a copywriter in an advertising firm and subsequently with his father in the family business. His theatre group Playpen was formed in 1984, and he has directed several plays for them, ranging from classical Greek to contemporary works. In 1986, he wrote his first full-length play, Where there's a Will, and from 1995, he has been working full-time in theatre. In 1998, he set up his own theatre studio dedicated to training and showcasing new talents in acting, directing, and stage writing, the first in the country to sepcifically focus on new works. Dattani is also a film-maker and his films have been screened in India and abroad to critical and public acclaim. His film Dance Like a Man has won the award for the Best Picture in English awarded by the National Panorama. In 1998, Dattani won the Sahitya Akademi award for his book of plays final solutions and ther Plays, published by East-West Books Chennai, thus becoming the first English language playwright to win the award. Dattani teaches theatre course at the summer sessions programme of Portland State University, Oregon, USA, and conducts workshops regularly at his studio and elsewhere. He also writes plays for BBC Radio 4. He lives in Bangalore.
There are no reviews yet.