Playwright Claire Deniuel was rehearsing in a church in France and went into a room to change. A few letters scattered on a table caught her attention. She couldn’t resist the temptation to open and read them.

The little notes were short messages to God asking that their wishes be granted. One letter writer wanted her or his father to be cured, while another had someone asking for good results at school. Deeply moved Claire scripted a play entitled, Wish, that was performed in the City last week.

Claire thought those messages were simple and straight but very intense. She chose to explore the concept of wish. She spoke to a cross-section of people — in jails and slums, among sexual minorities and politicians to get a glimpse into what they wished to be happy.

She asked a  few people to introspect and describe their feeling of joy, sadness, freedom, love etc. “The people I interviewed spoke from their heart. They were simple and true. I have based my play on them,” Claire told Metrolife and added, “when you know what people want, you begin to understand who they are. Soon the social character disappears and you can feel the real person and sometimes the real truth.”  

Claire feels it’s the positive energy among the people in this City that binds them together. It costs nothing to wish, believes Claire. “When one wishes one can be naive, innocent and non judgmental. You can express and say things that you can’t really say in your every day living,” says Claire.

Wish is indeed a thought provoking play. That nothing would be imposed upon anybody and people have the free will to choose and practice anything of one’s choice was the crux of the play.