Word: desani
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Hali was written in 1950 by G.V. Desani in India. The drama is set in ancient India, and centers around a sort of demi-god, Hali(Steve Bonsey). The play is derived from a novel, but the tale is not unravelled through dialogue and conventional blocking. Rather, Hali tells his story to the audience with the help of a narrator, and as he talks dancers and players sweep onto the stage and act out many of the adventures around him and with him. The music consists of nothing but a very primitive recorder and a drum, but along with...
...slow, calming atmosphere of ritual and myth pervades the Loeb Ex this weekend. Hali by G.V. Desani, a four character play that is perhaps more like a quiet reading than a show, is the traditional Hindu story of a beautiful nature boy and his representations of family, love, and emotional life. With a voice reminiscent of Kahil Gibran, Desani quiets the emotions and stills the action to bring to the audience that famous peace. Performances are tonight through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with a matinee Saturday at 3. Free tickets are available at noon the day before the performance...
...Desani, the author of All About H. Hatterr, has led a life nearly as interesting as the one he created for his protagonist. He lived for nearly two decades in monastaries throughout the Orient; he was for a time a journalist in India, and he recently served as Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas. If he hadn't stopped writing, he might have given us some masterful examples of a difficult genre, the comic novel. Whether or not he ever writes again, though, All About H. Hatterr will guarantee him a loyal group of readers...
...Desani's hero, H. Hatterr, is an Anglo-Indian and a "true spiritual devil-may-care." In seven symmetrical chapters, he seeks enlightenment from some sages of India, then sets out to the countryside to apply his new-found wisdom. Each adventure turns out to be a con game, with somebody else working the con and Hatterr as the game. Attempting to exorcise the mystical fit of an itinerant bard, he is himself accused of being possessed by a spirit and is nearly burned alive on a pyre. "Damme," he says, "this is Life and contrast...
Contrast is Desani's key philosophical concept. Make no mistake. All About H. Hatterr is a philosophical novel that deals, however obliquely, with such eternal conundrums as love, free will and appearance and reality. Its protagonist formulates no doctrines. But without ever quite losing his innocence, he does arrive at a visionary acceptance of all mortal matters as so much moonlight on the Ganges. "To hell with judging!" he concludes. "I have no opinions, I am beaten, and I just accept all this phenomena, this diamond-cut-diamond game, this human horseplay, this topsy-turvyism, as Life, as contrast...