Sharmila Chauhan

(seen at the Soho Theatre, London on 23 March 2014)

This play is set in the modern day community of Shaktipur in southern India, a rural matriarchal society based on ones in ancient times. Shaktipur was created 50 years ago to address the problems of female infanticide, which has resulted in a relative dearth of women relative to men, and female subjugation and abuse by their families and husbands. Women are allowed to take as many husbands as they choose, as long as they are not pregnant, and they serve as heads of households, although men are given an equal voice in their affairs. Women are encouraged to bear as many children as possible, preferably girls, although boy babies are welcomed equally. The city is closely guarded against wicked outsiders who would steal its women and take its bountiful crops. As a result, Shaktipur has become prosperous, due to its world renowned farming techniques, and, unlike most of the rest of the country, its citizens live side by side peacefully, free of sectarian strife and violence against women.

Aya is a women in her thirties, who has recently been chosen as the leader of Shaktipur. She has two husbands, Omar, who was entranced by Aya and moved from a nearby city, and Sem, a sensitive man in his twenties who Aya chose as her husband after her first husband, Sem's older brother, died at a young age. Aya has not born any children, despite an actual sex life with Sem and especially Omar.

As the play opens, Aya is preparing for her wedding to a man from Mumbai, who has promised her land and support in her goal of spreading the successes obtained and lessons learned in Shaktipur to that troubled city, and the rest of India. Sem, who was born in Shaktipur and embraces its beliefs, is happy for Aya and accepting of the new marriage; Omar is somewhat perturbed, however, as he desperately wants a child and believes that Aya has chosen another husband to provide her with the daughter that he was unable to.

On the eve of the wedding an unannounced visitor shows up. Jerome is a British professor in his fifties, and a past lover of Aya's, who she originally met when she traveled to London to discuss her community's agricultural successes at a conference there. Although she is surprised by his appearance Aya welcomes him warmly, but Sem and Omar are annoyed and wary of this unwelcome and narrow minded Westerner, who seems to know Aya far too well and is openly critical of Shaktipur and its men.

As Jerome confronts Aya that evening, he uncovers a secret that threatens to unravel her wedding plans, and to fray the tight knit fabric of her household, and everything that Shaktipur believes in.

The Husbands was an engaging and thought provoking play, which featured strong acting by Syreeta Kumar (Aya), Mark Theodore (Omar), Rhik Samadder (Sem) and Phillip Edgerley (Jerome). The performance I saw had a different ending than the script did, and although I enjoyed the play as a whole, I wish that one or more of my female friends could have seen it with me, so that we could have discussed it, and Aya's motivations, afterward. Unfortunately the performance I saw was the final one of its run at the Soho Theatre, but hopefully it will be shown again in London or elsewhere in the near future.… (mais)