This play taught its actors the science of hair removal

From faith to AIDS, from homosexuality to transvestism, Akvarious' new play, All About My Mother, tackles a gamut of themes, as a mother sets out to find her dead son's transvestite father

From faith to AIDS, from homosexuality to transvestism, Akvarious' new play, All About My Mother, tackles au00a0 gamut of themes, as a mother sets out to find her dead son's transvestite father

"A hair removal cream is good. It kills the hair from the root in three minutes and then use the spatula to clean up the mess," actor Anand Tiwari earnestly tells co-actor Adhir Bhatt. Bhatt promptly replies, "Oh! You've used Veet? I was thinking of using a trimmer."

Anand Tiwari and Faezeh Jalali practice dance moves during rehearsal

As we eavesdropped on this surreal off-stage conversation between two otherwise very masculine actors, we got an indication of what life must be like for a transvestite. Finally, Anand declared, "After this play, I'm never going to accuse my girlfriend of taking too long to get ready."

Spending two months workshopping the stage adaptation of All About My Mother with director Akash Khurana got the cast thinking about femininity in a whole new way. Just before the premiere show, we caught up with the cast and crew as they attempt to pull off a multi-faceted play.

A Complex Play
Based on the Academy Award-winning Spanish film of the same name by Pedro Almodovar, the play follows the journey Manuela (played by Puja Sarup) undertakes to find the transvestite Lola (Adhir), who is the father of her dead son Esteban (Ali Fazal). Along the way, Manuela encounters other charactersu00a0- the divau00a0 Huma Rojo (Ratna Pathak Shah), her co-actor and partner Nina Cruz (Aditi Vasudev), the warm transvestite Agrado (Anand) and the pregnant nun Rosa (Faezeh Jalali).

There are so many subtexts to the play that a simple synopsis just cannot grasp all aspects. "There are a lot of things happening in the play but we've tried to keep the focus on the mother's hunt, not for her husband, but for the father of the teenaged son she has lost," says Khurana.

A Thinking Cast
Anand and Adhir might have gone in for hair removal for their roles, but their director never asked them to. Just like Shah, who went ahead and got a spunky haircut and a salt-n-pepper look for her role. "I feel liberated after getting the cut and going grey. The great thing is that it suits the character of Huma too," says Shah. She also got stylist Sapna Bhavnani to style the look for all the lead female cast members. The director claims these are things that his cast has done without any prompting. "Collaboration and trust between the cast and crew of the play is very important for me. I'm working with a thinking cast and the good thing is that all of us share the same vision for the play so it all works out for the better," says Khurana.

A Jittery Producer
Playwright Samuel Adamson adapted the movie for a West End or Broadway-kind stage, with enough space for grand scenes. Khurana has also tried to stay as "conceptually ambitious" as possible. In simple terms, it means having the performance on a 6 ft-high metal stage made from scratch, among other things. The grand plans are getting producer Akarsh Khurana quite jittery. "The Diwali break delayed work on the set. Instead of comforting me, the set-maker has declared 'Sab Allah ki marzi hai'. I'm only focussing on the sound cues of the play since I'm also handling that department. I don't have the time to think like a producer," says Khurana Jr, sporting a dishevelled look. For now, the worried son ought to take a cue from his composed dad, who is confident that his dedicated cast and an accepting audience will make the opening night a smooth sail.

On: Tonight at 8 pm
At: St Andrew's Auditorium, Bandra.
Call: 9870066649 Tickets: Rs 400, to Rs 100. On: November 1 at 6.30 pm.
At: Tata Theatre, Nariman Point.
Call: 22824567 / 66223724
Tickets: Rs 400 to Rs 120