PATIENT was the opening play at Thespo 13 presented by B.M.C.C. Pune. It is the story of a twenty-two year old man's battle with liver cancer in the early 70s when medical science was not as advanced as it is today. The play set in a hospital room depicts the suffering and loneliness of Arun Deshpande. PATIENT won awards for the Best Production, Best Play, Best Supporting Actor (Siddarth Mahashabde) and Outstanding Director and was well appreciated at the festival.
Arun belongs to a middle class family consisting of his parents and a younger brother. The playwright depicts the last days of Arun's life and his deteriorating state of mind. The play begins with three actors drilling into Arun's head. This device is used throughout the play representing the pain and agony he is going through. It is a good idea which if executed neatly could have had a better impact. Moving on, it speaks about the effect of the disease on Arun's family, his social circle, on his dreams and his aspirations. By the end, Arun loses connect with reality and begins hallucinating.
Though the play is primarily set in the hospital room, the director uses space interestingly to depict the various circumstances surrounding Arun's disease. A hospital bed in the centre with a table to its right, a dustbin next to it and a wing to wing level at the back makes the set. The bed remains in the centre throughout the play and brings out the monotony of Arun's life. He is confined in the room, stuck to the bed. There is a constant buzz around him when his family visits him during the day; in contrast, he is totally isolated at night. He struggles to sleep and is in excruciating pain but has no one to share it with. In one scene, the director creates a brilliant visual of a top angle view of Arun's bed.
Suraj Parasnis's script is well written and depicts the depression of the protagonist with subtlety. However, the audience strives to know more about the character, and other aspects of his personality to relate to him. Whereas, the play is only about his trauma on detection of the disease and the consequent psychological and social change. Siddesh Purkar's performance as Arun is good. He gracefully portrays several layers of his character with unusual ease. The rest of the cast does a fine job in creating the typical Marathi middle class environment. The lights and music aptly support the play to achieve the desired effect. It is in sync with the sombre and gloomy undertone of the play.
One scene has music being created on stage by the metaphorical representations of the disease as they cut a tree using a saw. The saw and drill are objects used to represent the unbearable pain that Arun is subject to. The director constantly explores new ways of telling his story and creates some wonderful visuals. However, the projection of Arun's diary and the web created in the end to depict Arun's mental deterioration did not serve any significant purpose. A minimalist approach could have been more effective.
*Sudeep Modak is a young theatre person with interests in other media. He has worked with Ramu Ramanathan, Chandan Roy Sanyal and has done production work for THE PROPHET by Naseeruddin Shah's theatre group Motley, amongst other things. He is currently acting in Suyog's revived production of SAKKHE SHEJARI, written and directed by Sai Paranjpe.
