When American artiste Sarah Jones brought her solo act to Delhi, theatre actress Maya K Rao was in the audience. Vidya Shivadas watches one actress watching another

The lights finally dim at the India Habitat Centre. The organisers, Delhi-based NGOs CREA and Tarshi, and an international organisation, Equality Now, come on stage one after the other to talk about women’s rights and the way the legal systems continue to discriminate against women in different countries.

And then before you know it, Sarah Jones has taken her place behind the podium, playing Praveen in a breathless, caricaturish Indian accent. ‘‘Nice touch. I like the way the performer uses the same podium as the organisers. She walks on to stage as if to make another announcement and quietly slips into the performance itself.

Right before our eyes, the podium goes from being ‘off performance’ to ‘on performance’,’’ whispers a voice from the next seat. And before you jump to any conclusions, no, this isn’t some enthusiastic stranger doling out unwanted analysis about a barely begun production.

I am watching the play with Maya K Rao, as part of a small exercise: Watching one theatre actress watch another perform. After all, 26-year-old Sarah Jones of New York is doing a solo act (Women Can’t Wait), a form that Delhi-based Rao often uses in her own performances.

The similarities end here though. Jones’s theatre has a clear political agenda but that isn’t Rao’s preoccupation when she begins a production. Having trained for many years as a Kathakali dancer, movement is her take-off point. And words come in later, through improvisations.

Our seats are on the right side of the auditorium and from here we can partially see Jones shifting her body — bending her knees, swinging her hips — as she enacts eight characters narrating their own experiences, accent and all, before the United Nations. For 50 minutes, she shifts swiftly from playing Praveen, who had to endure long years of marital rape because there is no law to condemn it in India, to Tokomo who can’t get remarried because the Japanese government won’t let her get a divorce, to Hala from Jordan who raises her voice against ‘honour killings’ in her country.

‘‘We have heard women narrate their sad stories from behind a podium for so long now that sometimes people just tune out when they hear another. So why does Jones use just this as a theatrical form? And how does she make it work? In the way that she employs a simple technique so effectively. In the way that she shows up each character’s vulnerabilities. And in small formal devices like the use of the scarf, the singular prop, that shifts from being a head gear to a doll,’’ Rao points out.

At this point, Jones is playing little Anna from Kenya, a 13-year-old, who is shyly talking about the practice of female genital mutilation that continues in her country. And the scene gets Rao excited, ‘‘Did you see her hand gesticulating down below from behind the podium? It isn’t really for us to see, we only caught a glimpse of it because we were sitting on the side seats. Jones is leading and living the lives of her characters behind that podium and not all of it is shared with the audience. I like that.’’

Is it really possible to address people at a global level through theatre, I wonder, while watching Jones perform. ‘‘Yes, it is, as long as you are careful about not losing the richness of the material you are dealing with. The more you get into the subtle nuances of human experience, the more it speaks to a larger audience,’’ answers Rao.

Post-play, the crowd hangs around outside the auditorium, in little clusters. A number of the people who have gathered to watch the play today are part of NGOs, active members of the women’s movement. This evening Jones’s performance was speaking to the converted. And they seem to see it as almost a vindication of sorts. Would Jones have the same effect on other audiences? Most likely, yes. At the very least, people would leave with a beginners’ guide to eight bad laws still operative in the world today.

‘‘As a performer, I never bother with what the audience is thinking, but as a viewer I am constantly wondering about what this play said to me. It is entirely possible that a lot of people went away from this show saying ‘Wow, what great accents Jones does’. Hopefully they are taking back more than just that,’’ smiles Rao.