A husband says that his wife just said, "Hell is other people" to him, and he was outraged over being labelled as the 'other'. A Sartre reference in the Marathi play Prasthan Urf Exit made the audience chuckle with delight. The husband continues to rant, "She was pretentious when she was younger, carrying the heavy tome Being And Nothingness in her arm… See how developed her biceps are from carrying that heavy book!"
638 pages does make for heavy lifting if it's done for effect as the husband claims. Why is he ranting with the wife asleep within the earshot? Because she's dead, of course. "Thank goodness she's dead. Who would want to argue with a woman who leans so left, she is redder than the reds, plus she's an armchair feminist and an individualist to boot."
He is of course, right leaning, quoting from the man from Germany who spoke about a totalitarian state… Pitting two points of view to an audience is what Sartre did brilliantly. This play, written by Makrand Sathe, has shades of Sartre's famous play No Exit, where three characters find themselves in a waiting room after death.
This elderly couple (Suhita Thatte and Gajanan Paranjpe) have been chosen by Death who has sent a Yamdoot to pick up the chosen one. Except… There's a glitch in the Death App and unless he knows which one of them is to really die, he has to hear them out.
The wife wakes up too (now he's dead). And the audience is ready to hear her point of view. Will she be just as gleeful when she realises that he is dead?
The Yamdoot (Tushar Tengle) listens in. "I knew you were selfish! You chose to die on a day when it is your turn to make the cup of tea!"
The audience is now divided. He made relevant points about how much he suffered from her pseudo intellectualism and how he tolerated her. But the division of labour in a household is a thing. "He didn't even know that his thinking is called Fascist. I had to show it to him. But these fascists don't really change, do they?!"
The chuckles keep coming, and the glitch in Yamdoot's app needs to be fixed. This gives the writer plenty of time to put forth an argument about how children grow up and go away and elderly parents are expected to sit together on video calls just to reassure the kids all is okay and that the parents are together. "Who wants to look after the elderly these days?"
The collective sigh from the audience is as welcome as the guffaws. I am not the only one who identified on many levels with the elderly couple on stage wishing their bitter half were dead…
You also understand the elderly man's frustration about technology. He tells Yamdoot that he's now retired, and fed up with downloading apps and learning new technology just to keep in touch with children and grandchildren…
The play uses projection and green screen technology very well in order to give us that other worldly feeling.. A little like The Truman Show where Jim Carrey's every move is being watched. The play is a little over two hours long and a fun commentary on life, death and loneliness.
(Manisha Lakhe Is A Poet, Film Critic, Traveller, Founder Of Caferati - An Online Writer's Forum, Hosts Mumbai's Oldest Open Mic, And Teaches Advertising, Films And Communication)
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