CHENNAI: If you think that eight theatre groups on a marathon run might be a bit long, you’re right. However, the three hours, were worth every scene twice over; and if there was an award to go to a Chennai-based production, this one took the cake.
With organisers, Freddy Koikaran (Stagefright Productions) and Mathivanan Rajendran (Stray Factory) playing hosts, the evening kicked off to a serious start with a glimpse into Theatre Nisha’s latest play, the Ramayana. Bala was the epitome of the character he played (Vaali), as a man scorned by his brother Sugriva and later killed by Rama. Sadly, the rest of the cast didn’t match up to the standard.
The little known mime group, Matricks wowed the audience with their tricks and human formations of everything from a cricket pitch to a sermon delivered at the altar, (although a vision of the crucifix might have hurt some sentiments). All this, with no props whatsoever. In a manner of speaking, they were golden!
Of course, the act that really had the audience in splits was ASAP’s Shakespeare in a quickie, a step-by-step guide to the writer’s character sketches by Dr Venky (Venkatesh Harinathan) from Chennai. Also weaved in and out of the performances were nuggets of trivia on each group and on-stage demo of a ‘flash mob’, something that Stagefright attempted at Express Avenue’s atrium to promote their play Dirty Dancing.
Another memorable group on stage was the all-white clad Stray Factory, who passed a colourful orb around a circle to the beat of tribal drums to decide which actors should hit the stage. They should play unpredictable situations. A personal favourite was Batman’s (Naren Weiss) visit to the therapist. Certainly unexpected and comically played out, Weiss had Batman’s raspy voice (and grunt in this case), down to a tee!
Popular favourite, the Hot Shoe Dance Company showed off their moves to much applause and gave the audience a sneak peak at their latest musical, Hairspray. Also high on humour was the Board Walkers’ parody of Romeo and Juliet that was just as scandalous as it was hilarious. Triple cast as, Benvolio Montague-cousin Tybalt-Juliet (Biggu Chandilya) seemed to have this 38Ds or larger constantly popping, or dropping, to which he would promptly ‘hand’ them back
in place.
Also a must mention, especially with the upcoming elections at hand was an extract from Theatre Y’s Gardysh (destiny), reflecting the theme ‘think before you ink’ in a round-about tale relating Hanuman’s search for Sanjaveeni to modern tax evasion.
As a fitting tribute to late theatre veteran, Mithran Devanesan, who invited friends from the theatre fraternity home every March 27 for a pail of bhel puri, there was bhel puri for everyone in the 15-minute interval.
