THE INQUISITOR
(Madras Players, a staged Reading,USIS)
Writer/Director: Timeri N. Murari.
SYNOPSIS & EXCERPT
THE INQUISITOR is a psychological thriller set in a dictatorship. A writer, who escaped to exile, is under a death sentence but returns to his homeland and deliberately gets himself arrested. The chief of Intelligence is baffled by the writer’s return and the play is a duel of wits as the mystery and passions unravel.
INQUISTOR is a chilling portrayal of life in a dictatorship. The atmosphere is Orwellian. The stark lighting shades the characters faces, as if to hide in the dark. The plot revolves around the warped inner worlds of its characters. Men and women who, when caught in the inextricable web of deceit and intrigue, only succeed in being drawn further into a compelling vortex of events.
Singer is an exiled writer who returns to his homeland, despite facing a death sentence. Deliberately getting himself arrested, he is brought before the country’’ intelligence head Mark, a friend turned foe. In this seemingly ominous setting, is another presence, that of he country’s dictator simply known as The Man. His presence on the video screen seems to permeate the room with high tension. A complacent Singer seems to accept his fate. A fact not taken too kindly by Mark. Making matters worse for him is the fact that Brown, his subordinate, has his eyes set on his position. Matters come to a head when the two women in Singer’s life, Judith, an ex-lover, and Marge his wife, meet. The play at this point, sparkles with caustic wit and sarcasm, as the women take the stage. Out of this simmering cauldron of human emotion, the truth emerges.
Singer, tortured by his past and the futile existence of a celebrity has returned home to face certain death. Mark, overcome by corroding hate for his old friend turned foe, sets Singer free. His punishment, to live the rest of his life and the fact that his ex-lover Judith is having an affair with Mark. In the process he faces a death sentence for disobeying The Man. Not even The Man’s personal appearance seems to unfaze him, for he is a man embittered by the failure of his ideology. The Man suddenly alone in his terror ruled world, appoints Brown to the new head of intelligence, As the lights fade out on this world, The Man receives word that the famous writer Singer and his wife, Marge, were killed in an ‘unfortunate’ accident on the way to the airport.
CHICANERY, a rehearsed stage reading, was a chilling portrayal of life under a dictatorship. Also gracing the occasion was the other man of the evening, Timeri N. Murari, the playwright and director. It sets you thinking about that old adage by Alfieri, ‘Often the test of courage is not to lie, but to live.’ Joseph Fernandez, ASIDE
The play gets quickly into full gear with a quick interchange between the inquisitor, Mark, a grim apparatchik in a totalitarian state and his deputy, Brown, who has come to report an incident involving on a man called Shilling caught at a border checkpost. The person is identified as Singer, a prominent dissident, who fled the country ten years back and settled down in the USA to make his name as a famous writer. He has come back, not only with an assumed name, but a new set of identification marks, which makes it easy for Mark to make use of this dual identity. What puzzles Mark is that Shilling-Singer while trying to escape the guards has run towards his exiled homeland, not away from it as though he wanted to be caught.
While these preliminary questions are being debated, a television screen, set prominently in the room, clicks into action and face appears in close-ups. It is the Man himself. All through the play the bland eye of the television suddenly blinks open with the actualisation of Orwell’s ‘Big Brother is watching you.’
It is a play with two climaxes. At the end of the first act Singer is sentenced to death and goes to his fate almost gladly, turning to say ‘Thank you’ to Mark. This leads to the skilful turning of the action in the second act where the inquisitor himself examines his motives and finally his life.. It’s like watching a game of electronic Ping-Pong, the ending is neat and swift as a bullet through the head. It is the sort of power a skilful dramatist must share. Geeta Doctor, INDIAN EXPRESS.