In Marathi theatre's shadow, English play 'Phoenix' rises

English theatre has always languished in Pune, while Marathi theatre has flourished.

- R Raj Rao

This isnt surprising, considering that the latter is adorned with theatre heavyweights such as Satish Alekar, Mohan Agashe and Jabbar Patel. These are household names that, together with Vijay Tendulkar, Mahesh Elkunchwar, every Maharashtrian is conversant with.

Not that attempts haven't been made to bring English plays to Pune. A couple of years ago, actor-director Feroze of Hyderabad-based Sifar theatre, an alumnus of the National School of Drama, brought Hindi renderings of two English plays to Pune: Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story and my own The Wisest Fool on Earth, which he enacted as well as directed. But there were fewer than a dozen people in the audience at The Box Studio, where the performances were held. Feroze said that, taking into account all the expenses he incurred in travelling with his unit to Pune, the pathetic sale of tickets didn’t even allow him to break even!

Now, Edward Albee is an iconic American playwright who belongs to the same literary canon as Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams. Likewise, The Wisest Fool on Earth has had successful runs at the Prithvi Theatre in Bombay and The Holiday Inn in Pune (where it was directed and performed by Rajit Kapur of RAGE), and at Lamakaan in Hyderabad, directed and enacted by Feroze. So, why then were there so few viewers at The Box?