Acclaimed playwright and actor Pip Utton from the UK is in India with two of his best known monologues- ADOLF and CHURCHILL. The shows are part of the 'Going Solo International Theatre Festival' and will be staged in Mumbai on October 19, 20 and 21 2013 at the Sophia Bhabha auditorium. We take the opportunity to do a quick interview with Pip whose solo shows have been making news since he first performed them at the Edinburgh Fringe festival.  By Deepa Punjani Deepa Punjani (DP): Your reputation precedes your performances and you should find a receptive audience in India. How does it feel to be here? Pip Utton (PU): This is my third visit to India and I am so very happy to be back. I fell in love with India on my first tour ten years ago and I am still in love! DP: Your website says that you embarked on this 'mad business' when you were 45 years old. What advantages did you have starting late? PU: I think that starting later in life gave me a wealth of life experiences to draw on that I would not have had when I was younger. Also I am still excited by performing; it is still a huge adventure for me. I have been very lucky to be able to tour the world doing what I enjoy. It hardly seems like work at all. I consider myself very fortunate. DP: In your solo performances you have been condensing the biographies of famous men into shows that are a little over an hour. Did you ever feel overwhelmed by all the material that you had to choose from? PU: In a word, yes! The hardest job is deciding what to leave out and not what to put in. It would be impossible in the short time scale of a performance to include all that is relevant but you hope to include enough to be able to paint a lifelike picture of the character. DP: What are the parameters that you refer to when you make your selection? Is there an element of risk in terms of this may work or this may not? PU: There is always an element of risk when you are working with characters and personalities that people already have a view and image of. What I try to do is portray the spirit and the feel of the character, and hope that it is recognizable easily. I do not impersonate. The portrayal has to be a three dimensional person and not a cartoon or a caricatured two dimensional image. DP: You have had no formal training. Did that work to your advantage too? PU: Possibly. I do feel that I would have profited from some training for my voice and my body but sometimes perhaps the natural tones, expressions and movements with no training work very well. DP: Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill were contemporaries. Both had a decisive role to play in the Second World War. If Hitler was the aggressor, Churchill, early on in the War, made it clear that the man must be brought down. Do their biographies intersect in your separate shows about the two men? PU: Not really. Of course Churchill mentions Hitler and vice versa but the plays are so very different. Adolf is a play with a message and a purpose, whereas Churchill is time spent in his entertaining company. I cannot judge Churchill. I am not knowledgeable enough and view him through the eyes and experience of a later generation. With Adolf there is no judging needed. By any moral standards he inspired and led an evil crusade. DP: Hitler has been vilified through history. Rightly so. But is there anything redeeming in your show about him, or would that be politically incorrect? PU: I have no fear of being politically incorrect. However I can find no redeeming factors in Hitler and the more I research him, the harder I find it to understand how a human being could have inspired such evil. I can find no redemption, no justification and no moral reasons for his vile actions. I portray him as a man without doubts, a man who could charm, bully and manipulate with his warped logic. DP: If there are three qualities a solo artist should possess, what must they be? PU: A healthy fear of failure, because there is no one else to blame. A willingness to lay yourself open to an audience. And, the confidence to look an audience in the eye and take them on a journey. DP: What's the next show you are working on? PU: My next show is on Casanova. After that it will be Margaret Thatcher. I am writing a piece about her. 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Interview 2 Timira Gupta Jyoti Dogra Lillette Dubey Mahesh Dattani Chandan Roy Sanyal Sunil Shanbag (ii) Jairaj Patil Jehan Manekshaw K Raja Ravi Verma Sankar Venkateswaran Heisnam Tomba Hariharan Jamini Pathak Hilda David Satish Alekar Vir Das Ranjit Hoskote Om Katare Nipun Dharmadhikari Satyadev Dubey Dipan Ray Stefan Kaegi Zafar Karachiwala Dakxin Bajrange Makarand Sathe Ramu Ramanathann Cyrus Dastur Shekhar Sen Benjamin Juhel Chaitanya Tamhane And Sudeep Modak Sujata Mehta Asif Basra Barry John Nagesh Bhosale Astad Deboo Manhar Gadhia Sandesh Bhandare Usha Ganguli Sushama Deshpande & Suhas Joshi Jyoti Vyas Arundhati Nag Habib Tanvir Ramu Ramanathan Pushan Kripalani Harold Pinter Rajeev Ravindranathan Rajendra Gupta Viji Iyengar Sunil Shanbag Darshan Jariwalla Smriti Irani Atul Kumar1 Ashwin Gidwani Toral Shah Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal1 Shaili Sathyu Sanjay Narvekar Rohini Hattangady Dr. Ashok Ranade Vandana Sajnani Mahesh Elkunchwar Madhu Rye Mahesh Thakur Srimathi Madiman Kinnari Vohra Joy Fernandes C.K. Thakkar Jameel Khan Anupama Jayaram Lilelette Dubey Avatar Gill Dharmendra Gohil Rajesh Puri Kumud Mishra Kumar Shahu Meenal Patel Mujeeb Khan Anant Mudra Utkarsh Mazumdar Shekhar Sen1 Manav Kaul Rati Agnihotri Smita Jaykar Uday Chandra Rahul Da Cunha Atul Kumar Manoj Joshi Jaimini Pathak Boman Irani Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal Naseerudin Shah Joy Fernandez Kamlesh Mota Dinesh Thakur    Discussion Board

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