Dehradun theatre group, ‘Prerna’(Inspirations) in association with Dehradun Express staged leonid Andreyev’s The Serpent’s Tale. leonid Andreyev was a Russian playwright who died at the young age of 48 in 1919.
The Serpent's Tale is a one-hander about a woman sharing her painful life experience of hurt ,betrayal and anger. She persuasively seduces a man and ends up poisoning him in revenge for the male oppression she has endured her entire life. It’s a story of crooked love, flirtation and evil. The mood of the play is very jazzy and sensual combined with sassy femininity. This is an ambiguous play which becomes meaningful when the woman confronts her anguish and disappointments.
She questions the matter of beauty and love. She also justifies her nature of loving by emphasising that she deserves better because she is beautiful and amazingly appealing to the eye. Killing the man is her way of healing the wounds she has been hiding in her beauty. In this dramatic monologue, we see a serpent. The serpent, who was a queen and who was loving and full of compassion but has lost her gentle self and become hard hearted. The tables have turned. She is looking for a prey. Earlier, it was she, who was trampled upon. Now, it is she, who hunts down her prey, professing love to him and gives him her final kiss which puts him to everlasting sleep.
Directed by Sujata Paul Maliah, the monologue was performed by Kriti Kapoor as the serpent. The crew comprised Vernika Dobhal, Priyanka Dhyani, Sukanya Kimothi and Monika Deshwal.