A Couple of Choices by Ajesh Sharma

Review by Shwetha H S

Genre: Play, Drama
Imprint: Kindle edition
ASIN: B07836YLTW

Ajesh Sharma is an NRI writer residing in Canada. A Couple of Choices is his first play and first published work.

Alex is a writer living in seclusion, somewhere is outskirts of a city that is almost a jungle. Linda, his literary agent, is after him to know why his estranged wife, Phyllis, is visiting him after so many years. Alex is all ready to welcome Phyllis to his home as if she is coming to live with him forever. Even he doesn’t know why she is visiting him. Though Alex is not keen on it, Linda barges into his privacy and insists on meeting Phyllis. Linda wants to know if Phyllis is the inspiration behind the great female characters in Alex’s stories. After the meet and greet, Phyllis tells Alex the reason she is visiting him. Alex is saddened, angered and calm, all at the same time after listening to the reason behind Phyllis’ visit. What is that reason? Read (enact in your mind) A Couple of Choices to know the reason.

A Couple of Choices is a play with dialogues that sound like every day conversations. They are in layman language and not complicated. Moreover, it is about a topic with which most of us are familiar. In a short duration, this play tells you about the bonds that weren’t supposed to happen, weren’t supposed to break, weren’t supposed to renew. All this in an easy flow of dialogues and mannerisms. But I felt the ending was kind of abrupt. On the other hand, I feel the characters just moved on with their lives. Maybe I missed something the author has hinted. All in all, I enjoyed reading it.

Even if you are not into plays, do give A Couple of Choices a read. It is not some random script for a play that doesn’t know where it is taking its audience (or even readers). It is a beautifully scripted play that can teach anybody a thing or two about relationships. Do give A Couple of Choices a read.

The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare

Review by Shwetha H S

Genre: Play, Fiction, Drama

William Shakespeare doesn’t need any introduction. He has numerous plays, novels and short stories to his name. There is so much of him, yet we cannot have enough of him.

The Winter’s Tale is a play by William Shakespeare telling us the story of the kingdoms, Sicilia and Bohemia through their royalties. Leontes is the king Sicilia and his wife, the queen, is Hermoine. Leontes childhood friend is Polixenes who is the king of Bohemia and is about to go back to his kingdom after a really long vacation in Sicilia. Seeing Leontes desperately trying to make Polixenes stay for more time, the very much pregnant Hermoine succeeds in convincing the king of Bohemia to stay back. This creates suspicion in Leontes regarding illicit affair of his wife with his friend. He believes the child in Hermoine’s womb is Polixenes’ and not his own. He sends his wife to prison and asks his loyal servant Camillo to kill the Bohemian king. But Camillo, who knows that his king is out of sorts, helps Polixenes escape to Bohemia and he himself goes with the Bohemian king to Bohemia. Hermoine gives birth to a baby girl, but Leontes doesn’t accept her as his. Their son, the prince, dies as he is separated from his mother. Hermoine too dies in prison. Paulina, wife of Antigonus, both loyal to Leontes, tries to convince the king, but in vain. Leontes orders Anitgonus to take the baby away and kill it. But Antigonus leaves it in Bohemia and gets killed by a bear in the process. On the other hand, Leontes learns from prophecies from the Apollo oracle that he made a mistake regarding his family and repents. What happens to the two royal families is the rest of the story.

There is no doubt that William Shakespeare has a good story in store with The Winter’s Tale. Most of the Hollywood and Bollywood movies are based on his stories. The only downside of this play is it is an unabridged version. It takes the readers some time to get used to the language and understand what is happening. Do give it a try.