"What makes it a great experience is that it brings so much joy to people. And we too enjoy ourselves in the company of our audience. It is nice to know that Indians have that sense of comedy -- though humour doesn't come naturally to us," says Anita.

Today, they are the only members of the original cast, who are still part of The Good Doctor. Ghouse and Anita play a dozen of the 23 characters in the play, with jut three others playing the remaining parts. "Chekhov is a modern master -- almost a predecessor to Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton. Because his short stories, funny as they are, also display an underlying element of pathos," saysGhouse.

A series of vignettes by one of the spearheads of Impressionism are linked together, but each of the stories is a world in itself -- depicting the joys and sorrows of everyday life. "It is a play which leaves everyone -- the audience and the actors -- with a wonderful afterglow. Because the characters are so human, none of them are perfect," says Ghouse. "We can actually mirror ourselves, as if these people are straight out of our personal lives," adds Anita.

That is the quality that lends credibility and makes Chekhov's portrait of 19th Century Russia, a timeless experience. But Ghouse, who has also directed two Shakespeare plays, Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice, worked out a different style of presenting this play in keeping with his own theatrical principles. "I believe in the theatre of economy, where the onus is completely on the actor. So, with just a chair, a stick and a shawl, an actor should be able to create a hut or a palace," he says. And when he first started working on The GoodDoctor 14 years ago, Ghouse brought in two characters -- twins (instead of the writer in the original play) -- who use the technique of mime to narrate the tale. "At that time, we just used plywood blocks as props and these twins would come out, under a blue spotlight, set the stage for the next story and move out. They were inspired by the very child-like creative principle -- the building blocks for these stories," Ghouse remembers.

But for his latest production, he has decided to use tables, chairs and a bed, because "mime is a very difficult technique to master". He found his actors walking out after a few shows leaving him with the task of training someone new. "Now I use two actors as helpers and make all the set changes in front of the audience. The sets have become more functional in my kind of theatre," he says.

But for Ghouse, the director, the biggest challenge was to make the serious business of comedy look funny. He describes it as one of the most difficult forms to master, because itrequires tremendous reflexes, timing and above all compassion, to do good comedy. "It is important to understand your characters and pitch them correctly. People always laugh at something because they are not in it there is an element of cruelty in comedy," he says.

The other imposing task before the husband-wife team was to assume several personas in the span of just two hours. "When I go up on stage, I don't think about the next part I have to play. Once I am into a character, I am all there," says Anita.

And despite their involvement with the play for several years, the duo has worked on this production for six months. "It is extremely important to grow, learn and unlearn before doing a new play. I purposely make things difficult for myself. Because the will to experiment and the liberty to fail is the greatest freedom -- which theatre gives me," says Ghouse.

At the Experimental Theatre, NCPA, on May 20 and 21, 1998. Time: 6.30 pm.

Last weekend, saw a Marathi production of The GoodDoctor. The coming weekend will see Ghouse's English version. While the treatments are different the universality cannot be denied. A review of Goshtichya Goshtichi Goshta

A two-act Marathi play, Goshtichya Goshtichi Goshta, presented by Natya Aradhana, a Sholapur-based theatre group is a tribute to the universality of Anton Chekhov's short stories. But director Prasad Vanarase's translation of The Good Doctor (a theatrical adaptation of seven of Chekhov's short stories by American playwright Neil Simon) also brings a distinct regional flavour to the production.

The characters transcend all boundaries of language and location and slip as easily into modern-day India as they did in the turn-of-the-century Russia. There is Jagdish Jaggannath Inamdar, a clerk in the public works department, who sneezes on the PWD minister and dies of mortification. Sushma, the docile governess, meekly submits to everything her mistress says even as she cuts down her salary from Rs 800 to Rs 80. Or, the villageschoolmaster who is terrified of having his tooth extracted by a doctor's apprentice. Vivek Gupte is a casanova whose area of specialisation is wooing other peoples' wives. Another poignant portrait is that of Hardan Harlikar, the man who offers to drown himself for a paltry sum of Rs 50, despite the fact that he doesn't know how to swim.

The madwoman who goes from office to office trying to recover the Rs 16.25 which her husband's company owed him, cuts a sorry figure -- her tragedy accentuated by her colourful clothes and bizarre make-up.

All these people and their idiosyncrasies take root in the mind of the sutradhar who narrates their tales and weaves them together. The result: a finely polished production despite the absence of extravagant props. Goshtichya Goshtichi Goshta is a memorable experience.