Family rows the same the world over

Black humour is to the fore in Dance Like a Man

The 10.30am telephone interview with Lillete Dubey - mistress of Indian theatre, sometime Bollywood star and visitor to New Zealand - goes awry when a scheduling change leads to an unexpected childcare crisis.

Dubey, in London settling her oldest daughter into university, laughs warmly and knowingly when, apologising, I ask to reconvene because Miss Two has stripped and is waving a (clean) nappy around my head, making it difficult to concentrate.

"Oh, I know exactly what you mean," she says in husky tones which are more Welsh-sounding than Indian.

"When my girls were little [she has two daughters now in their 20s], I used to think, life will return to normal when they are 5 and start school. Then it was when they were 10 or when they were teenagers. My mother said to me, 'Lillete, you are a mother now - this is normal'."

Which is why Dubey believes Dance Like a Man, performed by her PrimeTime Theatre Company in Auckland this weekend, is loved by critics and audiences from New Delhi to New York.

"It is about experiences which touch the hearts and minds of us all, no matter where we live," she says.

Written by leading Indian playwright Mahesh Dattani, Dance Like a Man is a family drama about Jairaj and Ratna, two Bharatanatyam dancers past their prime, whose daughter Lata is on the brink of establishing herself as a brilliant dancer.

Lata's impending success stirs up a volatile mix of emotions which highlight familial tension, jealousy, conflicts and dark secrets.

Black humour runs through the story, which moves between India's present and past to become a commentary on South India's history and social scene.

Dance Like a Man has been performed about 250 times since opening in 1995 and has travelled India and internationally, including Pakistan in 2004.

"The best thing about being in the performing arts is that there are no barriers or borders," says Dubey.

"When we were in Pakistan, there was no conflict - just the sense of camaraderie which exists between performers."

In Dance Like a Man, seven characters are played by four actors, including Dubey, who also directs. She has resisted suggestions to make the characters' accents neutral or replace some of the dialogue with more colloquial English.

"Theatre audiences make the effort to understand it - just like other plays - because they come to jump into a whole new world.

"No one expects to get a glossary. From India to San Francisco, no matter where we have taken this show, it has worked."

New York Times' reviewer D.J.R. Bruckner praised the play's quality of acting and described the story as joyful, adding, "It is also somehow reassuring to know that families on the other side of the globe are a fractious and occasionally dysfunctional as our own."

Dubey, the daughter of a doctor and a physicist, helped to found PrimeTime Theatre in 1991 to promote original Indian writing in English.

Dance Like a Man was her first collaboration with Mahesh Dattani and established PrimeTime as a new wave in Indian English theatre.

Touring its productions was always part of the plan.

Dubey says she is not the kind of person to do five shows of a play then close it. Nor does she shy away from controversy.

One of the company's productions, 30 Days in September, focused on child sex abuse in India.

Dubey and her oldest daughter, Neha, took leading roles in the production. Mother and daughter have acted together before in the film Monsoon Wedding.

Dubey says she enjoys making films but theatre remains her first love.

Neha is now resuming psychology studies, a decision her mother approves of.

"I think you have to be a bit masochistic to be an actor because you put your head on the block every time you perform.

"If you make a mess of it, people don't hesitate to cut you down. You make yourself vulnerable all the time."

Dance Like a Man is one of the highlights of this month's Diwali celebrations.

The Diwali Festival of Lights runs till October 22 and includes theatre, dance and free family entertainment as Auckland's Indian community shares its cultural traditions.

What: Dance Like a Man
Where and when: SkyCity Theatre, Oct 13 and 14