“The magic of theatre is how much can you stimulate the mind of the audience, not how many illusions you can create”
Naseeruddin Shah directs or is involved with almost every Motley production. He has personally acted in the vast majority of the group’s landmark plays.
A pick of notable Motley productions featuring Naseeruddin Shah on stage include:
Waiting for Godot
Motley’s very first play (1979) based on Samuel Beckett’s absurdist classic, Shah famously played Pozzo (and later Vladimir) alongside Tom Alter and Benjamin Gilani.
The Dumb Waiter
The Harold Pinter’s classic, in which Shah and Benjamin Gilani played a pair of hitmen waiting for their target.
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
Shah acted in this grand military courtroom drama by Herman Wouk, alongside a large ensemble cast, playing the unstable Captain Queeg in early productions.
Julius Caesar
Co-directed by Shah, he also took the stage as Mark Antony in this massive, 50-actor ensemble production based on Shakespeare’s classic.
Dear Liar
One of Motley’s longest-running and most successful plays based on Jerome Kilty’s original, Shah stars as the witty, cynical playwright George Bernard Shaw opposite his wife, Ratna Pathak Shah as English actress, Mrs Campbell, as his sparring partner.
A Walk in the Woods
A sharp two-man show adapted from a Lee Blessing original about peace negotiations between two hostile nations. Shah played Jamal, a flamboyant, cynical Pakistani diplomat, opposite Rajit Kapur’s uptight Indian diplomat.
The Father
In Florian Zeller’s intense tragicomedy, Shah plays the lead role of André, an elderly man fiercely grappling with the terrifying onslaught of Alzheimer’s disease.
The Truth
Another Florian Zeller adaptation where Shah plays an unfaithful husband, in a witty farce about deception and the modern marriage.
Old World
A tender, late-stage romance by Aleksei Arbuzov, starring Shah as a grumpy chief doctor at a sanitarium who meets a quirky patient (played by Ratna Pathak Shah).
Einstein
A tour-de-force solo by Gabriel Emaneluel, almost written for him, in which Shah transforms himself into the eccentric, and deeply human genius, Albert Einstein.