Dark debut drama

Maia Katrak’s debut play Epilogue flagged off the Writers’ Bloc 2 Festival in Bombay on January 9, reported Mumbai Mirror of January 11, 2007. It is a dark drama dealing with the four days after death when the departed soul reaches the other world, as per Parsi belief. Though Katrak documents these four days in the life of her protagonist Rustom Vachcha, the play is not an exercise in exploring the afterlife but aims to emphasize the strength of the bonds that bind a family together through good times and bad.

The humor lacing the play is naturally dark but is woven in well to bring out the bitter sweetness of relationships. The characters are believable but sketchy, says the reviewer. Rustom’s sudden death leaves his wife Freny, their pregnant daughter Meher and her husband Fredy facing unresolved issues and often violent despair. Unable to simply stand by and watch, Rustom enters their dreams and talks them out of their strained states infusing them with hope and courage. While he is at it he downs a ‘Vachcha peg’ and cracks some jokes as well. Though the grief tends to get hysterical at times, missing the finer nuances of pain, the real trump card is love which flies out unfettered from the script and its production, the review says.