A Straight Proposal

12 OCTOBER

SHRI RAM CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS, DELHI

Applause erupted a number of times before the curtain fell on this performance of A Straight Proposal, as it drove home some tough messages. Being a gay man in India today, it suggests, means living a life that remains unfulfilled, far more so than for heterosexuals. The play follows Mitesh, played by Dilip Shankar, over 20 years of his relationships with other men, which fail repeatedly because society will not accept him or his lovers. When he flees to New York and meets Dhruv, played by Teekam Joshi, the newfound freedom gives Mitesh hope—and makes his return to India all the more tragic. In the last scene, the director, Happy Ranajit, compares the repression of Indian homosexuals under Section 377, which criminalises sodomy, to the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany—a reference that unnecessarily weakens the message of the rest of the play.

~ Lalon Sander