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BITTER truth
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Lushin Dubey's solo stage performance of Pinky Virani's book "Bitter Chocolate" brought out the enormity of the problem of child abuse
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Bitter Chocolate: Lushin Dubey in a solo show.
"BITTER CHOCOLATE", a solo performance by Lushin Dubey, in aid of the Indian Council Of Child Welfare, Tamil Nadu, Tulir — Centre For Prevention And Treatment Of Child Sexual Abuse and Ashraya — Project: Safe Childhood, staged at the Museum Theatre, was an energetic performance, born of conviction. The play was based on Pinky Virani's novel, "Bitter Chocolate."
Pertinent points
Directed by Arvind Gaur, Dubey's solo brought out the subtleties of style in the various characters adopted, with unerring precision. She made pertinent points on stage. Rape isn't funny nor is molesting children fun. Incest is more common than one realises and there must be an awareness of this menace to deal effectively with it.
The play opened on a grim note in a court of law. The lawyer's insistent questioning of a twelve-year-old child victim was relentless and harsh.
The well-penned dialogue painted a gruesome picture, while keeping the cold, indifferent note alive. Sample this, "Which finger was it?" asked the lawyer. The molester here was the bureaucrat father. The child's retelling made her relive the horrors of dirty films and `uncles.' But her testimony was easily dismissed as delusional ranting. She was accused of not understanding her father's great love for her.
Next on stage, Dubey enacted the reactions of women, in a public hearing that condemns women like this twelve-year-old victim's mother who stood by her daughter and dared to take her rapist husband to court, saying it was women like her who weakened the moral fabric of society.
The play proceeded to analyse the problem of sexual abuse from all angles and this is what constituted its appeal. While lawyers can be unsympathetic, some are duty conscious too. So we had one solicitor who callously asked, "What drink was it? Coca Cola or Pepsi?", while another felt it was his moral obligation to file a case against an abusive teacher. It was not only about the victims or their trauma. The police were not always corrupt, but often a misplaced sense of sympathy made them give incorrect advice and thereby become unwitting perpetrators.
Fast pace
The play with its multi-layered scope for interpretation moved at a fast pace. The victims, the abusers, law keepers, parents, supportive and the unsympathetic, were melded deftly into a melange from which emerged a true and shocking picture that did not in any way seek to dilute the enormity of the problem of child sexual harassment in India. The music by Sangeeta Gaur formed an evocative background score to the action on stage.
PAROMITA PAIN
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