Written by Lina Patel
Directed by Alana Dietze
Cast:
Preeti Shah Reshma Gauhati
Julio Elliott Spencer Paez
GOLDEN TONGUES: Traces of Desire
Can desire be inherited? Or rather, can the inability to fulfill it trickle down through a family?
Once upon a time in Bombay, a widowed Uma Bhatt refused a suitor. He was Muslim; she was Hindu. Unwilling to risk her reputation, she shunned her heart’s desire. Shortly after this denial, Uma died. What might be the end of a tragic love story is, in fact, the spark that lights up Traces of Desire, a choral play chronicling the struggles and pleasures of female sexuality in one Indian family. Over three generations, these women gradually learn to embrace their bodies and yearnings, freeing themselves — and a fourth generation — of long-held notions of womanhood. Lina Patel explores the central questions of Lope de Vega’s The Widow of Valencia in this hilarious and moving adaptation as she takes on female agency and transgression, prejudice, and even the idea of womanhood itself.
Traces of Desire will be a staged reading in English.
This staged reading is part of Golden Tongues, a collaboration between Diversifying the Classics and Playwrights’ Arena. Since 2013, the Golden Tongues initiative has commissioned and staged new adaptations in English of Hispanic classical plays by Los Angeles playwrights. Learn more about the Golden Tongues series here.
Uma Bhatt/Uma’s Trace Desire Anna Khaja
Nirmala Shah Rachna Khatau
Aparna/Una Sami Cavestani
Rizwan/Remo Stone Ian S. Peterson