Naseeruddin Shah-starrer ‘Dear Liar’ opens today

Falah Faisal | NT
Bengaluru

Theatre aficionados have been having a great time this month with Motley presenting one great play after another at Ranga Shankara as part of their 44th anniversary celebration. So far they have presented ‘Ismat Manto Haazir Hain’, ‘Einstein’, ‘Aurat Aurat Aurat and Kambakkht Bilkul Aurat’.

The theater fest will finally come to a conclusion with ‘Dear Liar’, which will see Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah share the stage in a play directed by the late Satyadev Dubey. ‘Dear Liar’ dramatises the 40-year correspondence between Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw and English actress Patrick Campbell that flowered at the end of the 19th Century. It was a bittersweet relationship, as both were married to other people.

About what inspired the play, Naseeruddin Shah said: “Nostalgia. It’s like a parting gift Dubeyji gave us; so, we treasure it greatly. Dubeyji considered Shaw the greatest playwright ever, and I am inclined to agree, and he had tremendous admiration for this woman who could match Shaw at his own game of wits.”

“The playwright says that no attempt should be made to physically resemble Bernard Shaw or Stella Campbell, and there’s a good reason. The action of the play covers a span of 40 years, so if we were to try and resemble them physically, we’d do nothing but change our makeup for two hours! So, we greet the audience as ourselves; it’s a play in which the actors stay removed from their parts,” he said.

‘Dear Liar’, starring Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah, will be staged at Ranga Shankara through the week from July 26 to 31. This is the last play in Motley’s monthlong celebration at Ranga Shankara

Where: Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar
When: July 26-31, 7:30 pm
Tickets: bookmyshow.com