'Lockdown Liaisons': Fine acting let down poor writing

Lillete Dubey’s latest play, consisting of five monologues, shows promise but falls short of being funny and charming

'Lockdown Liaisons’, the latest play directed by Lillete Dubey and adapted from Shobhaa De’s latest book, is about the varied experiences of people during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The play, performed at Chowdiah Memorial Hall in Bengaluru on Wednesday, consists of five monologues — with stories of people from various economic and social strata — that runs for well over two hours.

In ‘Vodka and No Tonic’ a young, ‘middle-class’ working woman, navigates her crumbling marriage; ‘A Quest Ends’ details the story of a middle-class banker trying to conceive with his wife, and ‘A Whiff of Eternity’ finds a newly unemployed woman who returns to her parents’ home only to be confronted with new responsibilities. ‘Leaving’ tells the story of a migrant worker in Dharavi who speaks for the suffering of lakhs of workers. Finally, ‘The Lockdown Funeral’ looks at a divorced, rich woman reminiscing about her ex-husband’s death, who left her for another woman years ago.

Despite a no-frills set, with minimal light and sound (a few ambulances sirens make a half-hearted appearance in the beginning, but aren’t heard from again) the play has its moments with strong performances at places.

But overall, ‘Lockdown Liaisons’ is a bit bland and a bit too long. The dialogues are stilted at places, despite mostly being written in Shobhaa De’s engaging, trademark Hinglish.

For instance, it is hard to imagine anybody saying “I looked quizzically at my daughter”, even if it is a monologue by a rich, Bombay sophisticate.

The only exception here in terms of writing is the monologue of Shambhu, the migrant worker stuck in Mumbai’s Dharavi. Joy Sengupta’s characterisation of the part is endearing. Delivered in Bihari-accented Hindi with an ever-so-slight inflection of Bengali, Sengupta’s monologue is the highlight of the play. This short piece manages to convey some of the shock and travails of lakhs of migrant workers during the first wave of the lockdown with humour and desi panache.

Joy Sengupta’s portrayal of Pinaki Majumdar, a slightly geeky, domesticated Bengali banker is lovely too. Despite being the picture of happy domesticity, he aspires to the adventurous life, as evident in his nature blog called “Running wild with Pinaki”.

In his performances and sensitive portrayals of the characters, Sengupta paints an image of the other — Pinaki’s wife and Shambhu’s lover — who aren’t present on stage.

Ira Dubey too shines in parts — her characterisation of Manju, a slightly neurotic, feisty, working woman stuck with an emotionally unavailable husband is funny and moving. Her portrayal of Shaalu, a reticent, shy lesbian woman in her 30s, not so much.

Finally, Lillete Dubey’s monologue, saved for the very end, is let down by the laboured writing. The story of a snobbish, upper-crust Bombayite and her reminiscing — punctuated with cutting insults — isn’t engaging enough.

Ultimately, ‘Lockdown Liaisons’ is something of a misnomer. The story is about people stuck in different situations in life, held up by the tenuous scaffolding of the Covid-19 lockdown.

When compared to other stagings by Dubey’s Primetime Theatre Company (the brilliant staging of Girish Karnad’s ‘Wedding Album’ comes to mind), ‘Lockdown Liaisons’ falls short.

There are several moments in Shambhu’s story and Sengupta’s performance which hints at what the play could’ve been — funny and charming with some pathos thrown in. But it stops short of all that.

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