Agnipankh (Play)

This play is a character study of the central character Baisaheb (played by Reshma Parulekar) who is a powerful matriarch of a wealthy landowner family. She exerts control over the estate and family business, as well as the lives of her children and alcoholic husband Raosaheb (played by Dilip Sonar). Baisaheb holds strong traditional views on caste and family pride, but her control is slowly challenged by a changing world.

Originally, the play (written in the 1980’s) was set in Post-independence 1948 India around the time of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. The social-political environment & anti-Brahmin sentiment form a backdrop of the events in the original setting.

For this production, director Mandar Gokhale has transplanted the action to rural Victoria around the time of recent devastating bushfires. The dialogue is largely unchanged, which will provide some challenges for audiences in terms of content in the present society we live in. The overall character study will be preserved and provide a night of powerful drama. The Phoenix is the mythic bird that spreads fiery wings and dies in flames, only to be reborn again in its own ashes.