Eastern Thespians

The Play

Set in the year 1958 in Goa, now a coastal state in India, this is the story of a time of change that revolves around the De Cunha family estate and the disintegration of its once glorious past.

The play begins on a Sunday morning in 1958 on the De Cunha family estate where Anatole De Cunha, the septuagenarian who looks after the estate, his nephew, Joaquim and niece, Margarita, the heirs to the estate are entertaining some old friends. Through a series of scenes of reality interpolated with illusions of Margarita, the protagonist of the play, we are drawn into a turbulent world that makes the characters face questions of allegiance, heritage, rights, roots and identity. While uncle Anatole adheres staunchly to his Portuguese origin, Margarita and Joaquim respond to the situation very differently as do the other characters in the play. As the play unfolds and hurtles to its inevitable climax it raises the questions of belonging and identity and our search for it, a question that remains moot in the current world with its large migrant population.