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Showing posts from November, 2015

A Fine Balance

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The story is sad. So sad that I was depressed when I closed the book. Depressed not just because the story is sad but that the story ended and that it ended on a low point. It could have easily turned sunny way up but it didn't. It made me so unhappy I wondered what is the point of the story, except to leave your reader feeling helpless and insecure about the future and about humanity. After you have absorbed the story and lamented over it, you start to look beyond the main story and to the backdrop. The descriptive nature of the book paints you a picture of India in the 1970s in front of your eyes.  The prologues give you the history of each protagonist and with them of different cultures and social nitty-gritties. It unravels the Parsi families and their modern culture that is still constrained to their singular community. In Dina, you see the young spirited potential of modern middle class women that is shunned and choked by the patriarchal society. The story of Ishv

People places and things

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I watched People, Places and Things at the National Theatre and I give it a 4/5 rating. Such fabulous acting, I really thought Denise Gough would bag all the best female actor awards this year. ( That didn't happen, instead going to Nicole Kidman for some remarkably good acting in a limited character in Photograph 51, though mostly because it was Nicole Kidman I think). I personally don't know anyone who went to rehab so it took me a while to get into the play but once I did, I was locked in. The journey that Denise takes on is difficult and mentally stressful, especially when everyone around her had written her off completely. There is also the physical element of withdrawal that breaks her down, her face expressing excruciating pain.  The play is perfect because it makes us feel hopeful at the end. it shows you that with a little bit of help, anyone can do it. But that help is hard to find. All that the play has is Denise Gough. Other characters come and g

Martyr

I watched Martyr at the Unicorn Theatre and I give it a 3.5/5 rating. A very interesting play and very contemporary theme (though it's actually a really old thence because people don't change much). A young boy in high school takes a sudden interest in the Bible and follows it literally, becoming more and more regressive. His mother pleads to the school to help him see reason. And his science teacher who believes in science and rejects religion becomes his biggest rival even though all she wants to do is help him. The subtle undertones of sexist remarks that the principal passes on the rather good-looking science teacher, the general sentiment of our fanatic that a woman's place is at home and the way the tables are turned on the teacher shows that laws may change but justice is hard to find any people don't change. It addresses religious fanatical ideologies but doesn't give us much hope. I'm not sure what the writer wanted to say when at the end the teacher