The sequence between the thief and the young girl was also very hilarious.Oh My Sweet Land, was an attempt to present the situation in Syria on stage. He is haranguing about the inadequacies of actresses when a latecomer comes in with a list of excuses as to why she is late. The play is snazzily written, almost like a cat and mouse game. She recalls her encounter with an exiled Demascenne medical worker, Ashraf. The masks were very well made for the old man, the thief, the singer who is called nightingale and for the Shishya.What does ‘home’ really mean The four walls of a house or does it have a deeper meaning of an abstract ‘space’ within us These are some of the questions that are asked in the play written by Noor Baig and Mohammad Ali Baig based on Noor Baig’s 2012 short story and it is a simple tale of a girl who doesn’t want to leave her ancestral home even though her mother thinks it is a good idea to move out. Vanda churns out a series of pleas and protestations and ultimately succeeds in battering the wary Thomas into submission. These characters occur in Commedia dell’ Arte, the classical Italian form. The performance by Corinne Jaber was brilliant. Two actors in the play are Susan George and Nakhul Bhalla. The play was done in the Commedia dell’ Arte style with all the actors wearing half masks which covered the face leaving the mouth open. Delhi International Arts Festival, featured the play Venus In Fur, a dark comedy written by David Ives, presented by director Arjun Sajnani from Bengaluru. David Ives, the playwright does not offer a satisfying solution to the mystery he presents of Vanda and Thomas. The performances were uneven with Javed the fiancé being ineffective on the skype and the maid playing up her feistiness too much. Thomas’ is about an aristocrat who draws the woman he is obsessed with into a sexual and emotional relationship in which holds total power. She does not find him, and learns of him working in a camp some distance way from where she is in Syria. There is also Madhu Swaminathan as Shahzadi who is feisty modern-day maid and S. For three months two of them became lovers and she organised the escape of fellow Syrians and helped guilt-ridden Ashraf to come to terms with himself. With the Diva singing off-key and her shishya getting upset and trying to initially tell her to get off the stage in signs, he finally takes her away after a physical struggle between the two. She was able to project the different phases in a life of exile.. She doesn’t want any change in her life as she has lived in her haveli while the young man wants her to come to Chicago and become part of the urban society. There’s a conflict of the tradition and modernity between her and her Chicago based fiancé. While Vanda dismisses the play as porn Thomas says its a love story which is based on a German novel written in 1720. Majeed as the scheming family friend, Asghar Chacha.

The play is set in Paris and the action revolves around the cooking of Kubah, a classic Syrian meat dish which she actually cooks on stage. Assuming the role of a besotted admirer and begging Vanda to subjugate him. Susan George is sensational as the slippery, multilayered Vanda. In fact the performance of a classical music performance gone off-key, was the highlight of the show. Some are taken from everyday Indian society. Thomas, a playwright and director has been auditioning young actresses for a female lead in his play. It’s Not What You Think, is directed by Deepal Joshi who also played a role with Kathryn Doshi and Yuki Ellias. He surprises himself with his persuasive reading of the role and insists that it had nothing to do with his own predilections. When Ashraf disappears she goes on a labyrinthine journey in search of him. The story is set in an old world haveli where an artist struggles to protect her identity and beloved heritage. During this journey she encounters two million refugees that stir deep ancestral memories.

As soon as Vanda steps into the role she drops her needy actress routine and she becomes Dunayev and takes command of the situation and of Thomas. Noor Baig was strikingly good in the beginning but gradually her sing-song dialogues became untenable.A. The confrontation between her and her fiancé on Skype raised the question whether a shift to urban situation is the foregoing of personal space as Noor Baig feels. Susan George knows the script backwards, even though earlier she had declared that she glanced through it on the subway. Seth and Prasad were effective in their brief roles.gif The Old World Theatre Festival concluded with the play from Hyderabad in English, directed by Mohammad Ali Baig who also played the main lead with Noor Baig, his wife playing the protagonist, Rashmi Seth playing the mother and Vijay Prasad as Ramaiah the faithful servant. While speaking to each other they have a simple rubber dumbbells English accent but while playing Vanda and Thomas they adopt throaty fake continental accent. A sassy servant and her dependant master, a bumbling thief and a little girl, a crafty old lady and other characters who were in the sketches. The three actors play all the parts in the sketches presented. Thomas tells her that she has missed her chance and her name is not on the audition list.

The actors have obviously trained in the art form they selected and they executed it rather well.Her journey in search of Ashraf is hilarious when it’s not tragic in this solo show.The Old World Theatre Festival concluded with the play from Hyderabad in English, directed by Mohammad Ali Baig who also played the main lead with Noor Baig, his wife playing the protagonist, Rashmi S Theater--2. The story is told by a woman Corinne Jaber, who is of mixed Syrian-German parentage. Her journey was a coup. She returns to Paris, a defeated and sad woman. Nakhul Bhalla is more effective in the play within the play in the role of the submissive aristocrat with a vague European accent. She mimics the people she meets, who promise to take her to Ashraf to find that he is another man with the same name.