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Dec 6, 1999

Royston Abel, 32
Director

URBAN ANGST
Why the f*@k do we have to do this play in Kathakali," goes the first line of Othello -- A Play in Black & White. Sure, why? Once, Abel's Assamese wife wasn't cast in an NSD production because the director felt "it's an Indian play, and she has a Mongoloid face". Abel the NSD graduate from Kerala went ballistic. "Bloody hell," he exploded. "Does being Indian mean north Indian?"

Temper, temper. But this angst, finely woven into a multi-cultural ethos gives Abel's work the cutting edge. An Assamese speaking actor plays Othello. Surprised? It picked up first prize among 1,450 others at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His next, Goodbye Desdemona, is about what happens to that actor after the success of Othello. NSD Director Ram Gopal Bajaj describes Abel as "innovative, creative and persevering". Still surprised?

-Anna M.M. Vetticad

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