The experience of modern-day India is nearly impossible to describe to
a Westerner. It is simultaneously spiritual and maddening. This
production of Terrence McNally’s 1993 play, A Perfect Ganesh, beautifully and achingly
captures India’s contradictions and allure. It’s a familiar premise:
Two middle-aged women from Connecticut, old friends both devastated by
the loss of a child, both seeking some intangible healing, travel to
India. The subtle yet powerful sound design transforms the elegantly
simple set into many moody locales: a hotel balcony looking over a
nighttime sea of people in Mumbai; a train ride through a long, dark
of tunnel; and the entrance lawn of the Taj Mahal. There’s the obvious
tension between one character who is content to see India from “a
comfortable seat and a suitable distance,” and the other who wants to
walk among people and meet them. There is also the subtle tension of a
foreign land drawing out the hurt and more primal emotion of the
characters reminiscent of a Paul Bowles novel. The performances and
production are pitch-perfect and conjure all the continent’s
mysterious magic.
Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Starts: Nov. 5. Continues through Dec. 19, 2010
