Author: Pranav Gupta

Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet, written in 1984 is his Pulitzer prize and Tony award-winning play written in 1984, and as rightly said by a critic but would be definitely more appropriately titled as “Death of a F***** Salesman” because of the use of profanity. I saw the movie version, which was directed by…

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a tribute and endeavour on the author’s part to write about instances, creating realistic portraits of African-American life. Set in south-side Chicago, it is a play that powerfully addresses so many issues relevant to the African-American experience in the 1950s – a massive precursor to what eventually…

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams is a play written in 1947, which provides us with an insight into a lot of social issues or ideas, as they were perceived to be at the time – mental health, the idea of chastity, homosexuality, among the many others. But, most of all, the reason why…

Waiting for Godot, an absurdist play, by Samuel Beckett is “a tragicomedy in two acts” about two characters, Vladimir (DiDi) and Estragon (GoGo), who wait endlessly for the arrival of a person named Godot. the two acts are set in the same set (a barren “mound” with a leafless tree). Estragon and Vladimir remain in that…

  This, last Saturday, I went to see an adaptation of As You Like It by famous Indian theatre and film personality, Rajat Kapoor titled, “I Don’t Like It. As You Like It” at the prominent theatre in my city, Kolkata, India, the G.D. Birla Sabhagar. The play had a very unique take on this…

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – this title (and the associated derivations that come about with this mythical figure) makes you expect something completely different than the narrative offered by this musical thriller. With a character like Sweeney Todd – who is nothing less than a “demon barber” because of the sinister…

The night falls often, as she turns her back,  The sun casts shadows, but it bleeds its radiance away.   Is this the end? The veil is cast; what was once the day is disguised in her clothes. A stage of indifference is stubbornly forged; She is resolute, unaccepting towards even a hint of change, Drenched…

William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, is arguably one of his most widely read and appreciated romantic comedies, whose characters, plots and themes can be credited to be a major inspiration for the creation of the entire genre and the very basis of contemporary works as we know them to be. As a first time viewer…

Medea by Euripides is a theatrical adaptation of the myth of Jason and Medea from Greek Mythology. The drama, a tragedy, is primarily about revenge and a woman’s scorn – Medea’s swears revenge against her husband, Jason, who has left her and their two boys for another woman, the daughter of Creon, the King of…

On my way back home for the summer (which is Kolkata, India for me – quite a long commute, you can imagine!) after the spring semester ended, I spent two weeks in London visiting friends and family. While I was in the city with my father, in accordance with our London theatre tradition, we had…