Three Plays

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Sub title: Larins Sahib, Mira, 9 Jakhoo Hill

"Three extraordinary plays by Gurcharan Das with a new introduction by the author The prize-winning Larins Sahib is a historical play set in the 1840s—a confused period after the death of Ranjit Singh when the British first arrived in the Punjab. Mira, ‘a rite of Krishna for five actor-dancers’, explores what it means for a human being to become a saint through the story of Mirabai, the sixteenth-century Rajput princess–poet. 9 Jakhoo Hill, the third play in this volume, is set in the autumn of 1962 in Simla. It examines a number of themes—the changing social order with the rise of a new middle class (while the old class foolishly clings on to spent dreams), the hold of Indian mothers on their sons and the eventual betrayal of sexual love. This trio of unusual plays, written by Gurcharan Das when he was in his twenties, will interest both general readers and theatre buffs. "

Book Reviews

"‘Remarkable in the way it combines Indian legend with the sophistication of Western total theatre . . . Mira has something of the quality of a dream ritual. [She] is a modern woman being broken on the wheels of convention . . . It has all the grace of a lovely voice speaking of eternals in a language just delicately opaque’—Clive Barnes, New York Times.

‘One can see why Larins Sahib won the Sultan Padamsee Prize . . . beautifully structured, with simplicity, carving out the development of one man’s character. The dialogue is lucid and dramatic . . . like a delicate instrument in a surgeon’s hand. We feel the ineffable thrill of tragedy’—Enact.

‘During the autumn of discontent of a once-wealthy clan [9 Jakhoo Hill] broods over better days . . . on the hold that mothers have over their sons, a family coming down in the world . . . remnants of the Raj, disillusionment with politics. Sixties? The script is here and now’—India Today.

‘But by all that is noble and true [Mira] is an artistic achievement of immense merit and supreme significance to the re-blossoming of the theatre in India . . . A rare, beautiful experience, watching and listening to Mira; one came out of the theatre cleaner, more joyous, and several centimetres taller’—Times of India.

‘This prize-winning play [Larins Sahib] has solid dramatic substance’—Nissim Ezekiel"