Theatre review: Letters of Suresh

Director: Feroz Abbas Khan
Cast: Palomi Ghosh, Vir Hirani, Radhika Sawhney, Harssh Singh
Duration: 90 minutes
Language: English
Rating: 3.5 stars
Image credit: Vinesh Gandhi
Plot: Four characters in the story – a Seattle-based teacher named Melody, a young student named Suresh, his older love interest Amelia and a priest named Father Hashimoto – have nothing in common, yet they pen letters to each other over a period of ten years.
Review: The stage lights up to show a lone bench and a writing desk. Melody, a teacher in Seattle has discovered a stack of letters written to her recently-deceased grand-uncle Father Hashimoto by someone named Suresh. She starts sending him letters. There is no response, yet she continues to write, driven by some need to connect to the young man who was in touch with her relative. The letters unfold on stage in a series of monologues by the actor.
In fact, the entire play is a series of letters – except for one Facetime bit - spoken out aloud as monologues by the four actors. Some of them are funny, some poignant. Some talk of grief, others of regret and unrequited love. Some reveal long-buried secrets. It is through the letters that the audience finds a connection with the characters as well. They learn that Father Hashimoto first came across Suresh at an Origami convention in Nagasaki or that Melody wanted to become a writer but instead teaches writing to freshmen. Suresh expresses anger when Father Hashimoto tells him that he will pray for him and feels repentant for it in the next letter.

Pulitzer nominee and Obie Award winning playwright Rajiv Joseph spins a tale which has love, loss and death at its centre but also the hope of finding and forming connections in these times when the world is feeling more and more disconnected. The art of letter-writing itself, so common at one time, makes one yearn for simpler times. The four narratives unravel slowly, but are held together deftly by Feroz Abbas Khan. Origami plays its role too, becoming a metaphor for the folding and unfolding of the letters.
Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani’s son Vir Hirani makes a confident debut with his first theatre performance as Suresh. Over the course of ten years in which he writes letters to Father Hashimoto, the audience sees him evolve from a young man given to impromptu and knee-jerk responses to someone who has a mature head on his shoulders. The other actors do a commendable job but it is Palomi Ghosh who stands out as Melody, pouring out her vulnerability and longing through the letters.

Although the pace tends to slacken at times, Letters of Suresh unravels in a languid and layered way, forging the need for connections in an increasingly disconnected world.
-Deepali Singh