Play review : Thicker Than Blood

Play : Thicker than blood.
Playwright : Delon Weerasinghe.
Troupe : Theatre Nisha, Chennai.
Director : V.Balakrishnan.
Awards won : Gratiaen Prize for best script in 2005.
Characters :
Suresh : An army major, crippled in the war, a war hero.
Old Man : An unnamed character who saves Suresh's life during the war.
Harsha : Suresh's elder brother.
Maithrey : Harsha's wife.
Dinesh : Harsha and Maithrey's son.
Kithsiri Bappa : An shrewd, old, manipulative politician; also the doyen of their family.
Vijay : Suresh's subordinate in the army.
Terrorist : An LTTE operative.

Story :
Suresh, who loses a leg in battle is acclaimed as a war hero and honorably discharged from the army. Disillusioned and frustrated, he spends almost all his time brooding at home, continually being haunted by memories of an old man who saves his life during the war, dying in the process. Harsha, his elder brother and a successful businessman, is just starting his foray into politics, under the aegis of Kithsiri Bappa. He devotes too much of his time to politics and as a result his relationship with his family and business partners begins to suffer. Kithsiri suggests that they rope in Suresh to help them with their campaign as he's a war hero. Suresh, though mistrustful of Kithsiri, agrees. His popularity increases gradually and at his acme, he agrees to be fielded as a candidate from Colombo, replacing Harsha who is less charismatic.
The play offers new insights into the concept of who is a terrorist and who is a hero. It explores the personal integrity, idealism and patriotism of a soldier and also what war means to a soldier, a civilian and a politician.

Review :
This is a script I've read long ago and one that I really liked. Also on learning that the director is a NSD graduate, I went to watch the play with great expectations. Unfortuantely, I was let down in all departments. The acting, direction and lighting were quite amateurish. As far as the actors went, no one really seemed to get into the role and as a result the impression one got was only that of a set of people who had memorized their lines well and not missed a single cue. The modulation wasn't all right in a lot of places too. And no one seemed to adhere to that most basic rule of theatre : THAT YOU GO LOUD FROM YOUR GUT, NOT FROM YOUR THROAT. All the actors ended up either shouting or calling out when loudness was demanded, not a single one went loud from their stomach. Individually, I would say that Suresh did an OK job, though the brooding persona (which you feel when you read the script) was missing. Another point to note was his reaction when Dinesh pushes him down, which looked really contrived. Maithreyi and the old man were decent too. Harsha was bad, his voice sounded pleading all the time, even when he's trying to assert authority over his family. Certainly not the impression you get from the script. Dinesh and Kithsiri were flat at most times. Direction and utilisation of the stage was poor too. Most of the time, the actors who were conversing were positioned awkwardly. And the lighting, which was a very important aspect of the play, given the simplicity of the stage settings was pretty amateurish too. They seemed to brighten up and dim down quite unnecessarily. And especially during scene changes, I don't think it's a good idea to keep lights on. The backstage people can use pencil torches. I mean, last semester in our play, we managed an entire living room to courtroom scene change successfully only using pencil torches.
Overall a pretty disappointing performance I would say, clearly affirming that an NSD tag does not necessarily mean a great play.

Play Review : Othello - a play in black and white

Play : Othello- a play in black and white
Playwright : William Shakespeare
Troupe : Can and Abel Theatres, New Delhi.
Characters and Cast:
Othello - A moor in the service of the Venetian State. Moor also read as "outsider" : played by Adil.
Desdemona - Daughter of a Venetian Senator and Othello's lady love : played by Kristen
Brabantio - A Venetian senator and Desdemona's father : played by Nikhil
Roderigo - A wealthy Venetian gentleman lusting after Desdemona : also played by Nikhil
Iago - Othello's subordinate in the army. One of Shakespeare's most manipulative and evil characters : played by Barry.
Cassio - Othello's good friend and Lieutenant in his army : played by Dileep.

Summary :
Originally a play in 5 acts, it can be summarised most shortly as follows. Othello, a moor and Desdemona fall in love with each other and get married, inspite of her father's disapproval. Roderigo wants Desdemona and pays Iago to spy on them and somehow make this possible. Iago, though intially loyal to Othello, begins to hate him after he promotes Cassio and not him as lieutenant. He wants to get Cassio killed too so that he can replace him. Deciding to kill 2 birds with one stone, he tells Othello that Cassio is having an affair with his wife and when asked for evidence, shows that Cassio has Desdemona's handkerchief, a present given by Othello, which in fact, Iago had planted on Cassio. Enraged, Othello resolves to kill Desdemona and Iago convinces him that Cassio needs to be killed too. He and Roderigo ambush Cassio with Iago remaining unseen so that Cassio can't identify him in case he survives. Finally, on being discovered, Iago claims innocence to Cassio's injuries and kills Roderigo instead, something he feels necessary because Roderigo is becoming increasingly suspicious of Iago's greed and final motives. Othello then kills Desdemona, her pleas of innocence falling on deaf ears. Finally Iago's game is discovered and Othello upon learning his folly is so overcome by guilt that he kills himself and lays on top of his wife's body. Cassio is then placed in charge of Iago. The play ends there, it is assumed that Iago is taken away to be tortured or killed.

Story of the play :
It wasn't the complete 5 act play, but was shortened to about 90 minutes while retaining the key scenes and the essence of the original. It utilised the concept of "a play within a play". A troupe begins rehearsing for Othello and decides to do it with a Kathakali base, the director( Royston Abel who plays himself in the play and who is Mallu, surprise surprise !!) remaining adamant about it, his cast's apprehensions notwithstanding. To help them train, they sign on a Kathakali teacher, Adil, who is Assamese and who can barely speak English. When it's time to assign the cast, Royston decides to give Othello's part to Adil and Iago's part to Barry, the oldest member of the troupe. His cast is furious because not only did they take it for granted as to who would be assigned what part, but also because Adil can barely speak English and would need extensive coaching to be able to even speak a few sentences together. Nikhil, who has a super-inflated ego is the most furious of the lot as he assumed he would play Othello. Dileep and Kristen, who are in a relationship, seem ok with the idea. The irony here is that Cassio and Desdemona, who are accused of having an affair, are already having one. Into their lives comes Adil, who ends up seducing Kristen during one of their after-rehearsal English coaching sessions. Adil, who is initially the quietest and most committed of the lot soon begins to throw a lot of tantrums and demands that Kristen break up with Dileep. This goes on for sometime, with Adil getting more and more into his role. As the jealous and suspicious Othello, he shows flashes of brilliance but they are cleanly overshadowed by his obsession with Kristen and desire for her. It reaches its crescendo when during a rehearsal, he actually almost strangles Kristen out of anger. This leads to a lot of ill-feeling and resentment towards Adil. The troupe is convinced that the play cannot go on the floor but ultimately they manage to pull it off with only one change. Adil is so much in love with Kristen that he cannot bring himself to kill her on the night of the play.
Review :
I thought the performance of the cast of "The Shadow Box" was brilliant. Well, these guys were simply MIND-BLOWING !! If i knew any better superlatives, I would have used them too. I felt the story was awesome, a modern day Othello that everyone could relate to that still retains The Bard's touch because of the "Othello being staged within Othello". The irony that Cassio and Desdemona, who are accused of having an affair, are already having one was delicious too. And as for the cast, Barry, Nikhil and Adil were beyond brilliant. The transformation of Adil from the quiet, simple and hardworking Kathakali teacher to the mistrustful, temperamental actor was especially noteworthy. Dileep was good too though he didn't have a very demanding role. I felt the main letdown of the play was Kristen. Pretty and curvaceous, she didn't do a very good job. There wasn't much voice modulation, her American drawl seemed totally out of place and she wasn't showing emotions like confusion, fear and despair properly, just to name a few. She seemed like one of those Hollywood "teen movie" actresses. Ok.. she wasn't that bad but the main point was that her co-actors were so good that the contrast was much too stark. From the acting and story point of view, I think this will remain the best play I've seen for quite some time to come but the script( the original lines that is) was a little too tedious and convoluted for my liking . And now matter what purists say, I think I'm speaking for the largest section of the audience present there who aren't exactly well versed in Shakespearean English.

Extras :
Avinash and Adi entered before me this time, and got us seats right at the back. I badly wanted to be up front to get a better look at Kristen but 'twas not to be. Nevertheless, I had a field day othewise.. :).

Play review : The Shadow Box

Play : The Shadow Box
Playwright : Michael Cristofer
Awards won : Lots, the most notable being the Pulitzer prize for Best Drama in 1977.
Characters : Family 1( a typical working class family) - Joe, Maggie and their son Stephen
Family 2 - Brian(a writer, history enthusiast and philosopher among other things), Mark(his gay partner), Beverly(Brian's ex-wife, who's a whore now).
Family 3 - Felicity( a blind, old wheelchair bound woman) and Agnes( her dutiful daughter).
The "interviewer" - an offstage character who interviews the onstage characters.
Performing Group : The Madras Players, Chennai.

Summary : The setting is in 3 cottages of a hospital's grounds where each of the 3 families live. Joe, Brian and Felicity are dying and are being allowed to spend their last days there. We're offered 3 different perspectives of death, one from each family. While Maggie is unable to come to terms with it and refuses to step into the cottage or tell their son Stephen about the situation in the unrealistic hope that it will cause Joe's impending death to go away, Brian is characteristically blunt, forthright and even nonchalant about it. And Felicity is quite feisty(maybe even horny), inspite of her age, blindness and cripple. She lives on in the hope that her younger daughter Claire(who she loved more than Agnes) who has long deserted them and eloped, will come look her up soon and then she can die in peace. And in this process, she makes Agnes' life worse than a living hell.
The "interviewer" pops in and out of scenes, interviewing the characters and offering us deep insights into their lives through his questions. It basically gives us an idea of what kind of people they are, why they do the things they do and how they view death.

Review : Being staged by the Madras Players, I didn't expect anything less than a brilliant performance. The auditorium, Music Academy, one of Chennai's oldest, largest and best seemed perfect for the occasion. The stage setting was quite complex since the 3 families and the interviews had to be shown simultaneously. Just that the arrangement was complex, nothing great about the props and furniture( which was raided from the neighboring Savera Hotel's lobby). Direction( Mithran Devanesen) was brilliant I thought, simply because the whole thing, though quite complex, seemed pretty easy to understand when I saw the play. And he really got the best out of his actors, which was a LOT !! Brian and Felicity, played by their seniormost members, were simply brilliant and easily the best stage actors I've seen till date. Beverly and Maggie gave awesome performances, with Maggie's monologue on why she can't accept Joe's death still standing out in my mind. Stephen- played by a kid who's a first timer, was pretty decent. Joe, Mark and Agnes were good too.. as in their emotions and body language looked in place with the diffferent scenes but I thought their voice modulation could have been better. Joe - not too effective in the emotional scenes was great otherwise and Agnes' voice got too monotonous after a while. As for Mark, his voice was sing-song right from the beginning and he would do well not to display his ethnicity so prominently by means of his accent( which happens to be MALLU, much to my dislike). And last but by no means the least was the "interviewer's" voice, which i cannot find any words to describe. It was a calm, soothing, almost hypnotic voice that was so clear and resonant in its quality that it didn't even seem earthly at times. The play dragged on a bit in the second half when I got quite bored. But the ending more than made up for it, I thought. So overall, an excellent play to watch and a good learning experience.

Extras : Thanks to Avinash and Adi, I had to enter the audi seconds before the play started inspite of waiting outside for almost half an hour. Started off by cursing them but ended up thanking them instead.. :). I got to see Chennai's finest resplendent in their sartorial splendor and a few firangs too. So thanks guys !!