Welcome to Andromeda.

Oh well I did not come with that wishful, fanciful name. This was the play of the yester years stage performer. The synopsis of the play is about a paraplegic tries to cajole a nurse into giving him a fatal injection which will put him to sleep, forever. This is a play played by a male and a female nurse. Very draining experience to even see such a heavy intense story worked out by the two in a nice way and subtle expressions. By far the best of the plays in 5 days. Reason - the characters definitely needed to remove their regular lifestyle and get into the character which was demanding. Also, since the action on the stage is minimal it makes it equally difficult and challenge for all the artistes involved. For that matter the day 2 play - To the death of my own family, was an equally demanding role and it being a mono act even more stress and pressure to do well to captivate the audience. Actor from New York, US Farah Bala infact did a great job this time as well apart from her performance in New York.

Coming back to the play - Welcome to Andromeda, a classical play was a playwright of the disabled. The playwright, Ron Whyte was a Quadriplegic and was was born with physical disabilities and both legs were later amputated. Eventually, Ron Whyte, died of a cerebral hemorrhage at his home in New Haven on Wednesday. He was 47 years old. Many of Mr. Whyte's plays dealt with the disabled.

[Information got from the tributes they played before the play started. ]

Knowing the information also meant that the person enacting the role on the stage was a person who suffered downward paralysis and housed serious problems in his body. So this was an equal emotional drain as well. As it is the play ended up being a portrayal of the complexities in a relationship between a quadriplegic and his nurse. The story revolves around this guy and the nurse on his 25th birthday when his mother goes to the shop in the heart of the city to buy him a few things that might interest him for his birthday. So promptly the nurse is more or less a "baby sitter" sort of a role instead of being a full timer as for as he is concerned.

How they start off being strangers to each other - one trying to impose on another, to how they start talking each other through, become buddies and share a drink with a few impressive music selection, to how the guy asks his buddy to do away with her shyness and asks her to show her bosom, to how liberated the lady becomes, to how she talks her way about being doing the job currently. Somewhere in the middle the guy asks the nurse to kill him coz he feels he has had lot of suffering and death to him still seemed a distant future and how overbearing it is for him being a cripple and how his mother seemed to become so obsessed with him. And finally how he manages to make the nurse to inject a wrong injection which eventually relieves his soul from him.

Fantastic portrayal. Not sure if the original playwright performer, Ron Whyte, would have been even better than the performer today on stage. They got a stunning standing ovation and both were so emotionally drained out for enacting about 75 minutes was no mean achievement indeed.

In the end, I am mighty satisfied at the investment I have had made. These plays are definitely worth a watch and I promised myself more of these. Morrow is another day with interesting plays I am looking forward to - The attempted Assassination of Salman Rushdie & The killing time.