Lillete Dubey and her cast hold Ludhiana in a spell

LUDHIANA: A great script, illustrious star cast and their absorbing performance cast the perfect spell on city residents as they indulged their cultural side at the staging of "August: Osage County" on Saturday night.
Written by Tracy Letts and re-written by Lillete Dubey, the Pulitzer award-winning play was staged at Guru Nanak Bhawan and saw popular silver screen faces Meeta Vashisht, Kitu Gidwani, Sandhya Mridul, Denzil Smith, Suchitra Pillai, Amar Talwar, Danny Sura and Maneesh Verma holding the audience's attention.
Residents hung around in clusters after the play discussing its dark humour and the nuances of the actor's performance. New Model Town-resident Manpreet Singh said, "We were really looking forward to the play and seeing actors like Kitu Gidwani and Meeta Vasisht on stage and they lived up to the expectation. It was a great performance. The play is also very well written and absorbing."
Kanchan Sharma, a resident of South City, said, "I loved the play and its humour. I also liked the way all the actors justified their presence on stage. It is good that such plays are being staged in Ludhiana and we are ushering in a much-required theatre culture." A fan of Kitu Gidwani, Kanchan added that one of the best things about the play was to watch Kitu in action. "I saw her in an aunt's role for the first time but she looked gorgeous."
Businessman Ravinder Bawa of Gurdev Nagar also gave the play his thumbs up. "I really enjoyed seeing prominent TV stars performing on stage here. I wish there are more such plays in Ludhiana," he said.
Before staging the play, Lillete said the play is a dark comedy revolving around a family that is trying to come to terms with things after its patriarch goes missing. She said it cannot be termed as an adaptation as she has merely changed the family's location. "Getting a cast of 11 top actors was not an easy job but I am happy I succeeded in doing so," she added.