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The Redemption

nytheatre.com review by Kaipo Schwab
August 15, 2005

The 1960s was a time of civil unrest and political action, not only for the United States but for places as far away as West Bengal, India. 45 years later it seems that one man cannot escape those turbulent times, despite having moved to America and made a fine life for himself and his family.The Redemption, written and directed by Sudipta Bhawmik, introduces us to the private struggle of Subimal, a man who was once a follower of the charismatic leader Charu Mazumdar and a Communist rebel in a small village called Naxalbari in his native India. As the play opens Subimal and his son Somu, a junior at Harvard, are packing boxes in preparation for a move to a bigger house when Somu comes across an old diary of his father's. In it are details of Subimal’s capture by the police and his subsequent betrayal of his comrades, including Subimal’s brother-in-law, while under extreme torture. In Somu’s quest to understand how his father could have possibly betrayed and murdered his friends and family and wreaked such havoc on the lives of his countrymen, both father and son come to understand the full weight of the burden Subimal has carried with him all these years and begin to put his self-chastisement to rest.Sankar Ghoshal as Subimal carries the bulk of the story and his overall work is solid although at times he looked a bit under-rehearsed (some lines seemed flubbed or he would jump his co-stars' lines). Amitav Roy as Somu and Mayuresh Khare as Bhaskar, Subimal’s brother-in-law, don’t seem as comfortable in their roles yet, but they approach the piece with gusto nevertheless. Keka Sarkar’s elegant, soft-spoken portrayal of Chandrima, Subimal’s wife, comes off best, being memorable in what amounts to a four-minute cameo.The Indian music by Partha Sarathi Mukherjee and sound by Indranil Mukherjee nicely complements the work on stage. Arunansu Dasgupta does what he can with the few lighting instruments available at Dixon Place.The simple set consisting of moving boxes and a random assortment of books and magazines is also standard FringeNYC fare, but in this case the starkness works well enough to convey the emotional space Subimal has boxed himself into all these years.