‘Unborn’— a play on female foeticide — strikes a chord

Ravneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Patiala, February 20

The students of MA English, Punjabi University, along with English playwright Neil Rathmell, presented a play ‘Unborn’ at the Kala Bhawan in the University on Wednesday. The play written with contribution of students, focuses on female foeticide, discrimination and suppression in a patriarchal society. It will be re-enacted on Thursday and Friday.

The first scene depicts a woman distributing the dolls- understood as the girls killed at birth- in front of the stage. The prologue sets the tone of the play with its essence. Different scenes depict the discrimination toward the girl child in all walks of life. A family expects a son after the birth of two twin daughters and get highly disappointed when again a girl takes birth. They even go to the extent of killing it. The father of the child agrees to it.

The play is replete with sarcasm and humour. A depiction of a prize distribution ceremony features awards for a dutiful daughter- who obeys her parents, a loyal sister- who works hard from a young age to help her brother become a doctor and herself ends up becoming a prostitute. The ideal wife, meanwhile, does not have any grudge that she has not had a life of her own.

The play ended with a woman’s heart-rending speech on the ‘unborn’- those killed in the womb. She says the ‘unborn’ girls are happy as they were never born and went straight to heaven.