Archive

Can a one-man stage reading hold the interest of the audience for an entire hour without even a single interval? The answer is yes: if the script of the play is fascinating, the acting outstanding and the direction superb. And all three coalesced to create a memorable theater experience at the Tata Theatre on Sunday, July 15, 2023 with the production of Oganga. The script was written by Dr Farokh Udwadia, the actor was Jim Sarbh and the director, Sooni Taraporevala. This was the second performance, the first being on July 10, 2022. Tickets were sold out for both shows.
The play, call it a monolog or a one-man stage reading, is a tribute to the life and the work of Dr Albert Schweitzer, a man whom Udwadia found to be  amazing — which he undoubtedly was. "Oganga” refers to witch doctor as Schweitzer was called. The word has several connotations, one of which is giver of life and death.

Udwadia traces the life of Schweitzer from a young boy whose sensitivity is evident from his adamant refusal to wear the warm winter shoes his mother has made for him because his friends are poor and would be wearing clogs. A student of philosophy, music and theology, Schweitzer happened to chance on an advertisement for a doctor required to serve in equatorial French Africa, now Gabon. He spent the next seven years studying to become a doctor and once he was qualified, despite the advice of his parents and friends, made his way to Africa. Fighting valiantly against the superstitions of the local people, operating in a henhouse with the help of a hurricane lantern assisted by his wife Helene, a trained nurse and anesthetist, as well as a black Frenchman, Joseph, his interpreter, Schweitzer eventually established a reasonably well-equipped hospital which would take care of 200 patients.
With such a dramatic life, Udwadia creates a script which keeps one spellbound for the entire duration of the performance. The text, from which very little could be edited, is economical and spare, enough to keep the attention of the audience riveted. 
Sarbh had a difficult task — to retain the spectators’ attention during the one-man performance. His diction was perfect; not a word he spoke was indistinct. He abandons his coat when he reaches Africa and rolls up his sleeves to get down to his job. Sarbh sensitively portrays the trials and the achievements of Schweitzer. He uses his voice to convey disappointment when, on reaching his destination, he does not find the hospital he had been promised; the frustration when one of his patients dies partly on account of his own neglect; the anger with which he confronts the witch doctors who have come to ask him to return to where he came from; the joy on his achievements and his curing of diseases, especially tropical ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sarbh portrays the peace Schweitzer finds at the piano — he was, at that time, probably the best known performer of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach — and the sadness on the passing of his wife. All these expressions were conveyed with great skill and emotion. When Schweitzer receives the Nobel Prize he is not duly elated as Helene is no longer there to share this moment with him. The standing ovation Sarbh received at the end of the play was well deserved.
Taraporevala directed a play for the first time and what a spectacular success it was! Everything was spot-on and perfect. After all, unlike in a film there was no question of takes and retakes. The Bach pieces Udwadia selected were ideal and the sound team ensured that the volume though audible in the background never interfered with the spoken word. The lighting followed Sarbh wherever he moved and the spotlight focused strongly on him when, at a very poignant moment, he stepped off the stage and knelt in the auditorium holding the hands of spectators on either side of the aisle.
It was Schweitzer’s fervent wish that he should be remembered for his book Reverence for Life: The Words of Albert Schweitzer which linked ethics with the march of civilization rather than his work in Africa, said Udwadia when he was called on the stage at the end of the performance. "Schweitzer believed that if mankind had to prosper, we should have a reverence for all life — not just human beings and animals but also plants — and then people would get along better and the ecology of this planet would be saved.” What better conclusion could there have been to a very enjoyable and instructive evening?