ONE eventually loses count of the number of films that are adapted from stage versions of the original scripts. Now, the vice versa, a rarity, has been attempted, with the Evam and Boardwalkers collaboration: An Idiot for Dinner; packaged to fit the stage, fear not, with all the added frills and laughs. Based on the French film Le diner de cons and its much-acclaimed Bollywood version Bheja Fry.
Directed by Michael Muthu, who seems in splits about his own production had a cast line-up interesting enough to retain, even enhance every laugh a script like this can produce. Turning the film into a play, he tells us, is an interesting journey, “The cast sat and watched the film together, and the subtitles helped us pen down the lines, which were later left to the cast to improvise on”, says Michael. “The trick here is to watch the film, and not ape the character on-screen, so we never advice actors to watch too much of the film. The dynamics of stagecraft are completely different from something on screen. The humour gets more prominent, and the serious lines much more dramatic,” he adds.
The improvisations are evident, and the adaptation of characters not just to an Indian, but a local Chennai context impressive. Michael Muthu is no stranger to this otherwise rare concept. He reminds us of his earlier productions The Silent Night, 12 Angry Men and It’s a Wonderful Life, for the Mellow Circle and the Loyola Theatre Society (LTS) all based on films. How do films appeal to him as theatre version? He says, “I began adapting movie scripts when I was running out of scripts. I read a lot and yet I found nothing interesting to make a production of. At this juncture, movies came as a creative relief”.
Speaking about An Idiot For Dinner, “This production was initially planned for the Loyola Theatre Society’s annual production to be staged sometime in February, which did not happen due to the lack of funds”, he says.
Evam’s initiative seems to have brought light to a well-loved script, this time from a completely different creative medium. Lest we forget, adaptations are closer to original works than foreign scripts with their excess dosage of alien streets and names.
expresso@epmltsd.com
