Daddy is inspired from French playwright Florian Zeller’s play Le Pere. The play delves in to the life of a devoted daughter and an aging father who is a patient of dementia. While the daughter grapples with her own dreams, love, and aspirations, she also shoulders the weighty responsibility of caring for her ailing father. When the daughter decides to move to another city to stay with her boy friend, Daddy finds himself loosing his grip on reality. He refuses all assistance from his daughter as he ages. As he tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved one, his own mind and even the fabric of reality. His mind drifts back to his childhood, and his late mother becomes his sole refuge. Through its powerful storytelling, the play demonstrates how the memory limitations affect the understanding of the world and the relationships.

Director

Surya Mohan Kulshrestha is a veteran theatre director, actor, instructor, and writer. He has been a former director of the Bhartendu Natya Akademi, Lucknow. His productions have been staged at numerous national and international theatre festivals. For prestigious cultural presentations He has visited various countries such as Norway, Finland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the USA, Canada, and Pakistan. His prominent works are Ramlila, Dulari Bai, King Oedipus, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Muntazir, Vasansi Jirnani, Adhe Adhure, Hulhuliya, Bury the Dead, Balkan Women, and Bhagavadajjukam. He has been felicitated with several prestigious awards like the National Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the Kala Bhushan Award from the Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan, an Honorary Diploma in Norway, and an award for Best Costume Designer in a USA.

Director’s Note

For quite some time I was discussing with veteran actor Dr. Anil Rastogi to do a play suiting to his age and stature. I came across Florian Zeller’s play ‘Le Pere.’ Impressed and inspired by its plot, I and my enthusiastic disciple Shivangi Nigam wrote a new play Daddy. The biggest challenge in bringing the script to the stage was the fact that some of the scenes are so realistic while some were illusions of a dementia patient. The sets, costumes, lighting, music, acting, movements, all demanded a special treatment. The play has been such conceived that our audience should watch the play from point of view of a dementia patient and pass through his experiences. The picture of the world and people that forms in our brain, at its core is our memory. The limit of our memory is the limit of our ability to understand the world and people. This play reminds us of the reality that, to some extent, we all suffer from dementia and whatever our understanding is, that is incomplete. I have used the idea of stripping away a part of the set with every scene portraying Anant’s character chipping away, bit by bit through each scene with his fading memory.

Group

Darpan is the oldest active amateur theatre group in North India, founded by Professor Satyamurti Ji in the year 1961. The Lucknow unit of Darpan was established in 1971. The group has presented innumerable plays and has given more than 1,900 performances across the country in various theatre festivals. It staged its renowned play Aurat Ki Jung in the Theatre Olympics 2018. The group actively organizes theatre festivals, seminars, and workshops. The year 2024–25 was observed by Darpan as the Centenary Year of its founder, Professor Satyamurti, and the group presented plays like Karna, Madhav, Akhiri Vasant, Katha Shivpal Ganj Ki and several others in the festival organized.