Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah is all set to play the role of writer Salman Rushdie 27 seconds, A stage production is based on the author’s account of the assassination attempt on his life.
The event took place on the morning of August 12, 2022, in the arena of the Chautauqua Institution in New York State. The knife attack claimed Rushdie’s life and left him permanently blind in his right eye. The play will now bring to the stage Rushdie’s traumatic experience and his reflections on the attack.
“I have been a fan of Naseer for a long time. I am happy that he has taken up this project,” Rushdie revealed. Hindustan Times
Work on the stage adaptation began some time after Rushdie’s book Knife: Attention after attempted murder was published in 2024. Kaushik Sen and Naseeruddin Shah, the playwrights behind the play, approached the writing team to acquire the rights to adapt their memoirs for the stage.
“Salman Rushdie responded warmly. The only caveat was that the script had to contain words from his book. So, whatever anyone says in this play is straight from the text,” shared Arghya Lahiri, co-director of the play with Shah.
Lahiri said that after the script was ready, Shah gave it another round of editing. The revised version was then read and reviewed by Ratna Pathak Shah, founding member of theater group Motley.
When asked what attracted Arghya Lahiri about this particular project, the writer-director replied, “The book itself is surprising because you think you are reading a work that describes, in graphic detail, the attack and its aftermath from the pen of one of the most powerful writers known in this and the last century.”
He added, “But it’s also a book about the creative process. About censorship; about religion; about how narratives are constructed; about how we’ve always believed in truth and certain principles by which we live our lives, that respect for human life is paramount.”
27 seconds It will be staged on November 2 and 3 at the Prithvi Theater Festival. Performances are scheduled for November 2 at 8 pm and November 3 at 6 pm and 9 pm.
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