Kaizaad: I have not found powerful male-centric monologues

Ten years of running a theatre company have taught Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal and her son Kaizaad Kotwal some very tough lessons. On the up side, they get to work with renowned names like Eve Ensler

MAHABANOO Mody-Kotwal and her son Kaizaad Kotwal sit in their traditional Parsi household, complete with doilies. But there is nothing conventional about their work. As their theatre production house Poor Box Productions completes 10 years and they get ready to stage Eve Ensler's new play I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Lives of Girls, they reflect on the ups and downs of being part of this creative field.



What's the affinity to women-centric monologues?
Mahabanoo: In 1998 Kaizaad brought a play, Eden Creek, written by his professor about five women and how the depression affects them. Monologues just fell into my lap. It was really unintended. Artistically, monologues are more challenging; you have only yourself to rely on.
Kaizaad: There are exceptions, but I have not found powerful male-centric monologues.

What have these 10 years taught you?
Mahabanoo: You have to be masochists to be in this field. (laughs).
Kaizaad: It's increasingly difficult to do theatre for all the wrong reasons. It's not that there are no talented actors or technicians. People who have the money are not willing to give to theatre. Production costs have escalated but ticket prices are the same. Actors are last in the pecking order and you feel guilty about that.u00a0

With The Vagina Monologues, controversy has not been far.
Mahabanoo: We just had problems in Chennai and Gujarat. I'm still hoping that we will be able to perform there. I think it's easy to use this play for political gains. When we did our 200th show, people from the Shiv Sena, BJP and Congress wanted tickets and they came and saw it. If it's The Vagina Monologues, you don't expect to see a story about a swami, unless you are a very insecure man.

Many have tried to piggyback on the fame of The Vagina Monologues including Alyque Padamsee with The Penis Dialogues.
Mahabanoo: It's not important; Alyque has seen the play six times.
You have seen the good and the badu2026
Kaizaad: Three weeks before The Vagina Monologues opened, the producer walked out which was a blessing in disguise. When we approached a fairly well known actress with the same play, she asked us how would she explain using the word vagina to her guruji?
When Jane Fonda came down for the play, she asked where the director was as she wanted to take her instructions from him. This shows she is not insecure.

How did Eve's new play come to you?
Kaizaad: We had planned to do nothing new for the next two years but when Eve's people approached us we had to say yes. They called us in May-June asking us if we could do it. We are exceptionally blessed. Eve has done so much work in the last 10 years to stop violence against women, I think she should have won the Nobel Prize.
I think it's the first international production to premiere in India. Each of the specific stories relates to girls and the stories are from all over the world - Israel, Bulgaria, China. It's very relevant in a culture like ours where the girl child is not even allowed to be born. It's poetic, entertaining and yet covers so much material in 90 minutes. Longines, who choreographed Slumdog Millionaire, will be choreographing the play.

To celebrate its 10 years, Poor Box Productions is having a one-week festival, titled A Perfect 10! and staging five of its best plays at Prithvi Theatre, Juhu, from October 24-31. For details, call Prithvi at 26149546 or visit www.bookmyshow.com
I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Lives of Girls opens on November 12.