One play, two roles. "Oxygen 95" staged as part of Pathey Nimidam at the Esplanade this 28th, 29th and 30th January 2022, was more than just a 10 minute play. On the face of it, it was a true life story of a lady trying to come to terms with her mother's death due to covid, unable to visit or be with her. However, for a discerning viewer, it had quite a number of layers when it finally went on stage.
I played two roles, one was a counsellor (Dr. Badri) who the lady (Meena) visits to make sense of her life that has turned upside down with this sudden loss. Death of a parent at any age shakes you up for sure, and death in such strange conditions of covid, where visits are impossible, can be traumatic.
The other role I played was a mother. A mother who loved her daughter, independent, yet nurturing strong ties with her children; forceful, yet helpless at times as hospitalization makes her feel increasingly depersonalized and out of control.
The director's idea of the swivelling chair to show the change of characters was brilliant. To me it lent a new interpretation to the story. Meena is distraught and is expressing a complex set of emotions to her counsellor who at times is able to mirror her mother. In her eyes she sees her mother in the persona of the counsellor. On the face of it, Meena is speaking to her counsellor but at another level she is speaking to her mother trying to revisit and unpack the sequence of events that transpired before her demise in the hope of making sense of it, if ever there was one. Did she do her best? Could she have done more? And as many of us feel in a similar situation, can she turn the clock back?
For many of us, our mother is our first counsellor, we would run to whenever we faced a problem. Even as grown ups, sometimes overburdened with the cares of the world one might just want to place their head on their mother's lap to find comfort and solace. So was it with Meena.
So was it for me enacting the two roles. For I found a merging, blurring yet distinct characters being played out.
I must also mention the poignant end when the mother rises up to come to the distressed daughter, to accept with serenity the inevitability of death and that the grand master above knows best and takes us into his fold; we may cast aside our physical bodies, but our soul lives on.
This was the symbolic casting off the gown after giving her final message. "We do our best and leave the rest"
This is why theatre fascinates me. The depth of the roles and the persona that one gets to portray. It teaches you about life and the choices people make. Teaches you to look below the surface of characters in the play. It also helps us understand peoples' behaviour in general. Each of us going through some issue, fighting our silent battles and yet being able to show up and play our role.
Yes, all the world is just a stage, as the famous bard said.
