 Mahesh Dattani's
30 Days in September
Direction
Arvind Gaur
Translation in Hindi
Smita Nirula
Music
Dr.Sangeeta Gaur
Best play of the year,2006 (SKP)
About the play
A play about love and betrayal, 'Thirty Days' treats the sensitive and generally taboo issue of child sexual abuse. 'Thirty Days' endeavors to lift the veil of silence which surrounds child sexual abuse and addresses the issue unflinchingly.It builds on the trauma of Mala who lives with the haunting memories of her abused past.
Her abuser - her uncle “ subconsciously lives with her all the time, as part of her dirty reflections. He damages her natural growth, deters her from pursuing her love interests beyond the ominous 30-day period and scars her soul every now and then. As Mala withers under the psychological pressure extorted on her by the abuser, her mother watches silently, living her own pain - suffering mutely.
Exploring the painful problem, Mahesh Dattani raises valid concerns and structures a world of optimism where the wrongs can stand corrected and resurrection of brutalized faith is possible. But none of this happens without another man's willingness to help the two women bury their traumatic past and find ways of rejuvenating their present. Deepak, Mala's boyfriend, becomes the agent of change here. He dares to unmask the evil, even at the cost of his love.
 He hits the women hard until they hit the rock bottom. Finally, there is no way but to come up - face the wrongs and dare to correct them, notwithstanding the challenges the process of correction entails. By marking a daring departure from norm, the play ensures that we, as a society, no longer take comfort in the routine of uttering word "incest" in gutless undertones.The play also brings us closer to the reality of abused children -pleasure does form a part of their pain, but finally the consequence of dangerous games can only be dangerous. Our only way to fight danger is to recognize it and crush with generous doses of brutality lest we are ready to condemn innocence to lifelong death. Arivnd Gaur's "30 Days in September" is worth watching. Mahesh Dattani builds his play around child abuse and tries to lift the veil on the hush-hush subject…..Lifting the veil ....ROMESH CHANDER, The Hindu
About Smita Nirula
Smita Nirula has been involved with theatre since her college days. She has a Master's degree in theatre from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA and a Bachelor's degree in theatre and journalism from McPherson College, Kansas, USA.She has been a theatre critic for the Indian Express,The Hindu and the Pioneer newspapers over the last 15 years. She has written extensively on theatre for various websites including ICICI's Café Dilli.
She has worked in numerous productions both onstage and offstage(light design, set design, stage management) in India and America.She has written plays which have been produced and published. Currently she is busy translating some of Mahesh Dattani's plays (including Dance Like A Man and Seven Steps Around The Fire) from English into Hindustani, and studying Vedanta.
About Mahesh Dattani
Mahesh Dattani, born in Bangalore on 7 August 1958, studied in Baldwin’s High School and St. Joseph’s College of Arts and Science, Bangalore.He has worked as a copywriter in an advertising firm and subsequently with his father in the family business. His theatre group Playpen was formed in 1984, and he has directed several plays for them, ranging from classical Greek to contemporary works.
 In 1986, he wrote his first full-length play, Where There’s a Will, and from 1995, he has been working full-time in theatre. His major plays are Dance Like a Man, 30 Days in September, Bravely Fought the Queen,Final Solutions,Tara, On a Muggy Night in Mumbai.Dattani is also a film-maker and his films have been screened in India and abroad to critical and public acclaim. His film Dance Like a Man has won the award for the Best Picture in English awarded by the National Panorama.In 1998, Dattani won the Sahitya Akademi award for his book of plays Final Solutions and Other Plays, published by East–West Books Chennai, thus becoming the first English language playwright to win the award. Dattani teaches theatre courses at the summer sessions programme of Portland State University, Oregon, USA, and conducts workshops regularly at his studio and elsewhere. He also writes plays for BBC Radio 4.
Sahitya Akademi award citation
Dattani’s work probes tangled attitudes in contemporary India towards communal differences, consumerism and gender…
a brilliant contribution to Indian drama in English.
Review-The Hindu  POIGNANT A scene from "30 Days in September" by the Asmita theatre group,Rashmi Singh & Amita Wali Lifting the veil Dattani builds his play around child abuse and tries to lift the veil on the hush-hush subject ROMESH CHANDER A little over a year ago, I had read Mahesh Dattani's "30 days in September" and was much impressed by its theatrical potential and was keen to see it on the stage. As luck would have it, "30 Days in September" was on the boards in New Delhi this past week. Translated in Hindi by Smita Nirula, and directed by Arvind Gaur, it was presented by Asmita, a leading theatre group that stands committed to socially relevant theatre. After having seen the play I once again read the original English version to see how far the presentation was relevant for the Hindi audience and I am happy to report that the play went down exceedingly well with the average Hindi audience as was very much obvious from the 25-minute audience discussion after the show. Dattani builds his play around child abuse, particularly sexual abuse, and tries to lift the veil on the hush-hush subject through Mala who lives with haunting memories of her past inflicted, as is common, by a relative, in this case her uncle. Mala's role was well played by one of Asmita's senior actors,Amita Walia. Dattani so develops the plot that all through the play, Mala lives with the haunting memories of her past. Perhaps, without being conscious of it, the uncle( acted by Susan Brar) has permanently damaged her development with the result that she cannot pursue her love interest beyond 30 days, psychologically hinted at by her underlining a particular date on the calendar. Yet another sensitively projected character is that of Mala's mother, Shanta played with immense control by Seema Mittal, one of our top actors on the Hindi stage. To watch her facial expression, living her own silent pain was indeed a rewarding experience for the audience. As we go along, we hear meaningful lines in Hindi as written by Smita Nirula and well spoken by the cast. For instance, when Mala and her mother are blaming each other and Mala says to her mother, "Once we were talking about a rape case that was in the papers. You said something about children also not being safe...Then I told you about what happened to me. But you changed the subject...That time I wondered if it was I or did I imagine it all? Surely not. No, it did happen." "Forget all these bad dreams," says the mother. "Every time uncle visited us it would happen...whenever I told you, you always said eat well and go to sleep, the pain will go away... Yes it did go away but it always comes back." There was yet another most powerful scene when the mother tells her daughter what she had seen. "You were pushing yourself in the bedroom, you were asking him to kiss you, to touch you, to pinch you... I also remember when your cousin came for his holidays...you wanted my brother and your cousin dancing around you. How can I forget"? Yet another beautiful sequence essayed with immense control is when the mother finally says, "Don't talk about it, forget the pain... try to forget the pleasure." "But the pleasure is part of the pain," says Mala. The mesmerising music by Sangeeta Gaur builds up the atmosphere. As we move towards the end, the playwright has some surprises for us, but the evening I saw the play, I felt the pace could have been a little faster and perhaps could do with a little editing. The last few minutes, however, will remain with us forever, and so will Mala's anger. There is dead silence for a few seconds as the audience stands up and then a burst of applause as Arvind Gaur in his usual style of always being in a hurry walks up the stage and invites the audience for a discussion... once again. A silence for a few seconds, and then a burst of frank comments and questions, particularly from the youth. Repeat show The play is on the boards again at SRC on April 15 and must not be missed for it is an aspect of life around us that must be exposed and fought. (The Hindu ,Mar 30, 2007) http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/2007/03/30/stories/2007033001470300.htm Actors  First show Susan Brar,Amita walia,Rashmi Singh,Jyoti Verma,Girish Pal, Pushpraj Rawat Repeat Susan Brar,Amita Walia,Rashmi Singh,Jyoti Verma,Girish Pal,Samina, Pushpraj Rawat,Seema Mittal,Bajrang Bali Singh,Sapna Khatana,Rahul Batra,Viren Basoya Beena Roy,Nidhi Gupta,Atul Sharma Shows
LTG, Sri Ram Centre, India Habitat Centre,Sahitya Kala Parishad Festival,Epi-Centre,PSK,Punjab Natyashala,Manch-Rangmach theatre festival (Amritsar)
Spl. thanks to Dr. Manoj Kumar
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