I have known Anushka since the days when winning inter-school drama competitions were of paramount importance. I directed her in ‘Oedipus Rex’ in 1992, and since then we have maintained a friendship which drove her one day drunkenly to declare “ if I had a sister, it would be you”. This is because I have regularly used her and abused her as only an elder sister can. In her first year in college, she came down to London to spend a night with me…and I was out clubbing, while she spent the night with my flat mates. Oh yes, and I returned at 6am, woke her up and ordered her to make me tea. What elder sister wouldn’t think that par for the course? Over the years, she’s been my flat mate, bridesmaid, fellow actor and always…dear friend. We were together in Jehan Aloysius’ play The Ritual from 2002 to 2004 and even toured Bangalore. In 2002, she also performed with Mind Adventures for the first time as Katharine in A Merry Regiment of Women.

Ruhanie first met us in 2001, when she came to interview the cast of Ubu Rex – 15 boys and lil’ old me. She still talks about how amazed she was at the complete mayhem that reigned supreme that day – 15 men bounding around, all clamouring to be heard is actually quite scary. She was a cow in SLM’s Animal Farm. She told me not to say that. I got to know her well on the set of ‘The Ritual’ and she is also one of three women who broke into Joseph Fraser late one night to visit me and my newborn daughter. When you make friends in the theatre, they are intense connections that sometimes brook no barrier – especially paltry ones such as stipulated Visiting Hours.

Lucky is an old CIS crony of my husband Deshan, and we have put away several bottles of wine together over the past 4 years. She is dating a ship’s navigator in the British Royal Navy, and may have to put up with ‘that’s classified information, darling’ for the rest of her life. She is also official supplier of gin and tonics at our rehearsals, which is always refreshing for a hard working cast.

Ameena is making her stage debut in ‘Fefu and Her Friends’. She’s a writer of fine short stories, her published works 15 and Zillij are available at the Barefoot Bookshop. When you are in a play, and work together for long intensive periods of time, certain phrases evolve that become bandied about by the whole cast. One such phrase in “fefu’ is ‘doing an Ameena’. When she first joined us, she had never improvised before and in her shyness and reluctance to move, would often sit in a chair and say ‘can’t you just imagine that I’m walking over to that table’? ah, these amateurs  so now whenever another cast member is guilty of such blatant fudging (I will surely get a scold for that), someone will always say ‘Oi, you’re doing an Ameena.” Similarly, if you think someone is trying to steal your lines or speaking before you have finished, and you object to that, its called ‘doing an Anushka’.

That is my cast. All brave and beautiful women, who really have been such a joy to work with.