There were many attractions that would have drawn Indian theatre-lovers to the play Wedding Album staged at Watermans from 15th to 20th September. Firstly, the play was written by Girish Karnad, secondly, it was directed by Lillete Dubey, and thirdly, the cast was made up of seasoned and well-known actors. The combination of all three elements made the performance thoroughly enjoyable.

Presenting this play in the UK made sense because its purpose was to show a slice of life in contemporary India, a view most people here may not have seen in its unvarnished version. It gave a glimpse of all the complexities of modern Indian society, as it adjusts to the tech-savvy lifestyle of the young. It did not however answer the many questions that arose in the viewer’s mind as one by one the scenes unfolded. Can the system of arranged marriages survive in a changed world? Can the Indian family continue to be as close-knit as it used to be if each one has a parallel life that he doesn’t share with the rest? How long would it take before the Indian family too gets fractured as in the West? True to its title, it was a collection of pictures that were not necessarily connected to each other in a straightforward narrative structure.

The play is set in Dharwad in Karnataka, and is about the Nadkarni family which is made up of the parents and their three grown up children: two daughters and a son. The family is preparing for the wedding of Vidula, the younger daughter, an occasion which has had the older daughter come down from Australia where she had settled after marriage. The fate of the brother is also being decided, as during the same period the Sirurs are trying their best to put pressure on him to marry their daughter while he is in a relationship with another girl. Before the play ends we know that eventually he does succumb to the temptations they are holding out. The first part of the play portrays the external relationships of an average family and it is in the second half that the dark secrets come tumbling out. And as is the case with most middle-class families, the maid is a part of the household and partakes of their joys and sorrows.

The new face of India may come as a surprise to some. In contrast to the way marriages used to be arranged when a man and a woman did not see each other until the wedding ceremony had begun, the prospective bride and groom today have the opportunity not only to introduce themselves to each other but also to have a private conversation in a place outside their homes where their family members are not present. The brother’s relationship with a Christian girl seems to be an open secret. That he talks to her in the presence of his family members on his mobile phone shows he is not particularly interested in hiding it. Such liaisons would have been frowned upon by an earlier generation. Vidula, like all young girls has a life in cyberspace even though she lives in a place which is not a major metropolitan city of India. Another revelation is how Indian women are ready to make sacrifices in their personal life to get ahead professionally and find themselves often at the head of organisations, as in the case of the television producer who is the brother’s employer. It is nothing new now for a man to work for a woman boss and to play up to her. India lives with one foot in the past and the other in the future. In fact, the values of the different generations exist side by side.

Much of the credit for the success of this play must go to Lillete Dubey who has not only directed the play but also played the role of the mother of the bride. Her flawless performance did not at any point betray the anxiety she must have had as the director on the opening night in London. Surely there must have been moments when, just as she was getting under the skin of her character, she must have simultaneously worried about technical details, timings and costume changes in a location where they were performing the play for the first time. Making intelligent use of the intimate stage space at Watermans to define the different areas where the scenes take place, she created the illusion of endless movement in a play which is basically set in the living-room of a middle class family or in other places where the characters do little more than sit and talk.

As if under a spell, the audience was transported for a couple of hours to modern India, and it was largely due to the acting skills of the entire cast who could lend that touch of authenticity to the characters they were playing. Special mention must be made of Raaghav Chanana who played the prospective groom from the United States. Even though he had never set foot in America he managed to get the accent just right. He said with a smile, after the show, that he asked a friend who had lived for a while in the States to read out his lines several times until he himself could repeat it with the exact twang.

This is Girish Karnad’s only play set in contemporary India - all the others take place in the mythological or historic past. But Karnad is very much a part of the contemporary cinema scene and so this is really not unfamiliar territory to him. His familiarity with the milieu gives him insights into the way the minds of the characters work. We see this in the portrayal of the maid’s relationship with her mistress, the sense of alienation of the father, and the bitterness of the elder sister who feels she was not given her fair share of affection.

He also brings out the various nuances in the character of Vidula’s brother, who while being one of the younger members of the family is also the man of the house, attending to all duties.

If the high points of the work came from the writer, perhaps the weak spots also came from him. The way the play moves back and forth in time left some in the audience quite confused. Also, the scene in the internet café was too brief compared to the entire length of the play to make the point that Vidula was indeed leading a distinctly double life. There was a feeling that among the many issues raised some were not touched deeply enough and this gave the impression that the play was moving in many directions at the same time.

The length of the play seemed not to weigh too much thanks to good humour in plenty, coming mainly from the true to life portrayals; yes, people could recognise their own families in the one they were seeing on the stage. But there were also many worrying questions that emerged that clearly keeps this play outside the pale of comedy. The end, although somewhat abrupt, had a clever touch when the maid asked the age-old Indian question “Can you keep a grown-up daughter forever at home?” while in the background we hear a TV presenter referring to the modern reality of a woman who had gone to the USA as a wife but returned disillusioned, possibly abused and ill-treated.

As the lights go off on that ominous note we are left with a question. Will Vidula find happiness? Her two siblings have already told her that if things turn out badly she should not hesitate to come back. The voice of the father warning everyone that marriage is a gamble keeps echoing in one’s mind even after the play is over. And perhaps he is the one who has the last word.

That Girish Karnad chose to write a new play, and so many actors connected with films and television gave their time and energy to it, shows that theatre is alive and kicking in India. English language theatre particularly has had a hard time surviving the stiff competition from popular entertainment in the electronic media. The more it succeeds at home the more likely it is that London will be included in international tours and circuits. That can only come as good news to spectators in the UK. Language not being a barrier, Indian plays performed in English can be understood and enjoyed by everyone.

Sunayana Panda, an MA in English and American Literature from Annamalai University, India, is a freelance journalist, theatre actress and director.