BENGALURU: It is not easy to deal in stereotypes, you are certain to offend atleast one in the audience. But Class Act, a play directed by Meherzad Patel, deals with four types and into this cauldron they add humour.This Silly Point Production will be staged on Sunday at MLR Convention Centre, JP Nagar, tomorrow at 7 pm.
The story revolves around a veteran Hindu theatre from Delhi who believes in sanctity of theatre and refuses to be part of movies, there is the 50-year-old Parsi bachelor who lives with his father and loves his bike as would a lover, the laidback Goan Christian and the lead is a “clean-shaven Muslim”.
Director Meherzad says that this has been inspired by life in Mumbai and he wanted to present “religion in a comical, light and happy” way.
He does not think he is handling anything too volatile.“If you get offended, tough luck,” he says, adding, “you have to learn how to laugh at yourself and that is what I did. There are stereotypes, we all know it, so where is the harm in talking about it… as a writer, I have to highlight the plight of the world.” They have done over 100 shows and not one member of the audience has raised any objection so far.
There is a method to this madness. “If a character is insulting another on stage, we make sure
that this person is also insulted,” he says. Joke is on the person buying into the stereotype.
While a large part of the play is written by the actors, who improvise on their lines, the director says that no new content is added during its staging. “Every line has to be tried out during rehearsals, and if it works it stays,” he says.
No individuals inspired the characters, who are instead a collage of observations made on communities. “I am a Parsi and could have written the lines for the Parsi bachelor in my sleep,” he says. “You will see many on a Sunday morning fixing their bike, no mechanic will be allowed to touch it. They compare their bikes to babes… Parsis are whimsical, they laugh at themselves, he says adding, “Every third word would be an abuse and he or she would think little of it. In fact, they would think it is a favour that they are so comfortable with you.”
There is a tragedy in the types we become but Meherzad says when any tragic situation is left to “brew” it becomes funny. “Comedy is tragedy plus time,” he says.He did worry about offending the Muslim community.
“But we performed even in Muscat and Dubai and Muslims in the front row were falling off their seats. The story does show the Parsi who insults the Muslim in a bad light. The Muslim boy gets beaten up but, at the end of the day, he has the last word.”