A new theatre production looks at those who haven’t done the crime, but done the time

‘The Exonerated’, a new play by Bombay Theatre Company originally written in 2000 by American playwrights Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, ran for 600 shows off-Broadway in New York City. In 2002, stage and film actor Avantika Akerkar caught the production “in this little black box theatre, with literally two rows of chairs and a few lights”.

In 1976, when US citizen Sunny Jacobs was on death row in Florida, she realised she had servants for the first time in her life. “They cooked for me, did my dishes, did my laundry, I had no bills to pay,” she says on a TEDx Talk on YouTube, in 2016. “So, I changed my perspective. Instead of awaiting my death by execution, I decided to do all those things I didn’t have the time for. I turned myself into a sanctuary. I filled my days with prayer, yoga and meditation. I learned more about freedom while I was on death row.”

Mumbai, India - March 03, 2023: Artistes seen practising during a play rehearsal, at Bandra, in Mumbai, India, on Friday, March 03, 2023. (Photo by Vijay Bate/HT Photo) (HT PHOTO)

Accused of murder, but innocent of the crime, Jacobs spent 17 years in an orange jumpsuit. She was in solitary confinement the first five years. Her 6x6 feet concrete block may as well have been six feet under the ground. Her worldly possessions included a toilet, a sink, a metal shelf, a thin mattress, a Bible and a law book. When she was transferred to a general prison, she says, “I was the happiest prisoner, because I could talk to people and eat with people. I could go outside under the sun. I was allowed phone calls, I was given a job in the kitchen, I got art supplies.”

When she entered prison, she was 28, a daughter, a wife, and a mother. When she was released, she was 45, an orphan, a widow, and a grandmother. Jacobs says, “I had a choice between hope and hopelessness. I decided I didn’t have to live the rest of my life in anger. The challenge became an opportunity.”

Her journey inside, along with those of five others, makes up the narrative of ‘The Exonerated’, a new play by Bombay Theatre Company. Originally written in 2000 by American playwrights Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, it ran for 600 shows off-Broadway in New York City. In 2002, stage and film actor Avantika Akerkar caught the production “in this little black box theatre, with literally two rows of chairs and a few lights”.

She says, “For one hour and 50 minutes, I didn’t move, and neither did the audience. It was mind-blowing, not necessarily the performance, but what I heard, what I experienced, what impacted me. When the play was over, there was this gasp. All of us were weeping.”

Akerkar waited two decades to bring the play to Mumbai. “They say timing is everything.” She recently worked with director Raveesh Jaiswal in a short film called ‘Domestic Help’. “The experience of working with Raveesh, his approach, his sensibility, his sensitivity, I thought, ‘This is the person who can give this breath, who can give this life, who can give this the dignity it deserves.’ And so, here we are, 20 years later. It’s been such a gratifying experience. If nothing else, if we only have these two shows it will be a dream come true.”

Guilty until proven innocent

Jaiswal and Akerkar are caught up in rehearsal at Granthali Pratibhangan, in Bandra. The five male convicts are played by Joy Fernandes, Asif Ali Beg, Suresh Venkat, Sandeep Jayaram and Nizwar Karanj. Jacobs is played by Meher Acharia Dar, and Akerkar is in a supporting role. It isn’t exactly a play, but a dramatised reading.

Akerkar says, “A play designates something different in people’s minds. They expect costumes, music, lighting, and all of that.” Instead, this is the deeply-felt ordeal of six individuals, whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Thirty-one-year-old Jaiswal, who is directing his third full-length play, says, “When I read the play for the first time, I thought, ‘Even though it’s in the American context, it’s universal.’ Because this is something that can happen anywhere in the world.” Akerkar continues, “Although the vernacular and the language is American-stylised — because it deals with African-Americans and there’s language that is specific to them — we were very, very clear that it stands on its own legs. If we have the right actors, the audience won’t be caught up in, ‘Arre, they’re using an Indian accent with these American words.’” Jaiswal says, “I clearly told my cast: no accents. The way we speak is fine.”

Given the scope of the subject, the actors had to dig deep to relive the injustice of it all. “We found it very important to sit one-on-one with the actors, because these pieces are very intense,” says Akerkar. “It’s like Nelson Mandela and Gandhiji. Our actors have to imagine what they must have gone through. When you think of the circumstances in which these six people were convicted, between them, they spent a 100 years in jail. Their entire life has been stolen. You suddenly take a step back and ask, ‘What is this concept of freedom?’ You can literally walk out of your door, something can happen, and your whole world can be turned upside down. You realise that life is so tenuous, so precarious.”

The work also makes the case for the senselessness of violence. “To use the word ‘human’ for a human being is such a fallacy,” says Akerkar. “How can a human being treat another human being like that? Why do you need to lord over another person to feel more important? Why would you want to make them succumb to degradation and humiliation? At the end of the day, I want us to question this. That’s why this piece is so compelling.”

(‘The Exonerated’ will be staged at G5A Warehouse, Mahalaxmi, on March 11.)