MAYBE IT’S THE HANG-OVER of Monsoon Wed-ding, or a byproduct of Lilette Dubey’s obsession with stories that dissect human rela-tionships. The theatre actor is now planning trousseaus and prepar-ing guest-lists once again for her upcoming play The Wedding Al-bum. The difference is, this time she is pulling the strings from the director’s seat.

Looking relaxed in a crisp pair of trousers and a sleeveless blouse at her south Mumbai of-fice- cum-studio, the 52-year-old can easily juggle her reel and real lives: She is Devyani, a high-pro-file journalist, in Madhur Bhan-darkar’s Corporate. At the same time, she is the creative head at the Primetime theatre company, applauded for its original screen-plays and stage performances. Scripted by Jnanpith award-winner Girish Karnad, The Wed-ding Album is a comic drama, set around a south Indian wedding, complete with heartache and cold feet. “I wanted to direct a contemporary play after Sammy —which was about Mahatma Gandhi. Girish was nervously ex-cited because he usually does his- toricals and this was new for him,” says the friendly director who plays scrabble with the cast. Lilette actively interacts with her writers—be it Mahesh Dat-tani, Partap Sharma or Girish Kar-nad— to smooth out the edges.

She calls it professionalising the process of theatre. “That’s the way it’s done abroad. The writer and director work together and the script evolves,” explains Dubey, who always tries to make her plays palatable to the western audi-ence. She will soon be touring Kuala Lumpur and Belgium and is also contemplating selling the original soundtrack of her plays on CDs at the venues.

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