HYDERABAD: “Don’t be silly Antonia. Come out, say something! What are you doing? Listen, maybe you are right, it’s my fault, but please come out. Open the door!”
Sitting on the commode and pouting with her mime-ish makeup, she simply won’t budge. Her waywardly husband’s numerous affairs have broken her heart and now, she wants to die.
She says in an exaggerated Italian accent, “I am taking a cocktail of pills. Mogadon, Optalidon, Femidol, Veronal, Cibalgina, 18 Nisidinetritate suppositories!” They engage in frustrated banter until he finally pulls her down from the window and she lets out a comedic “Ow!” And the mini-amphitheatre in Rangbhoomi is rife with laughter, courtesy this outrageous couple, who endear themselves to the audience for the next hour or so as they confront marriage, gender roles and societal expectations through razor-sharp wit, cold humour, and moments of vulnerability.
The Open Couple was originally written by Italian playwright Dario Fo and his playwright-actress wife Franca Rame. Interestingly, director Faraz Khan has brought the play—presented by La Compagnie Dramatique—back to Hyderabad after seven years.
Back to the drama: Upon being coerced by her no-name husband, ‘The Man’, played by the versatile Rohan Joshi, Antonia, played by veteran theatre thespian Vaishali Bisht, agrees to explore polyamory. Et voila, they become an open couple.
Oh, but what a tumultuous marriage. No mutual understanding but a classic case of ‘Mamma Mia, how the tables have turned!’ As Antonia raves on and on about her new, multi-talented, ‘professore’ boyfriend, her husband—Rohan brings to life Chaplin’s slapstick style more than ever here—gets comically miffed.
Antonia calls him out, saying, “All you want is to get possession of what is yours by law. If you could, you’d brand me on the bottom with a red-hot iron—like a cow!” And as if this raunchy humour doesn’t make our tummies hurt enough, Vaishali and Rohan suddenly break character and go at each other in Dakhni. At this point, the audience goes absolutely wild.
A very humorous take on marriage, yes, but Faraz Khan’s version gives Dario’s ’80s version a little theatre-ware update as Antonia and her husband verbally rope in themes such as patriarchy and heteronormativity. But the beauty of Faraz’s directorial genius really lies in how his ‘attore’ and ‘attrice’ skillfully ‘play to the galleria’—they boundlessly bicker with each other like no one is around yet only face the audience throughout.
They use the stairs as a prop too, with the husband even playfully walking up to and complimenting a female attendee, much to Antonia’s improvised detest, enlivened by a snarl. And the lighting and music masterfully accentuate their expressions and moods too.
But there comes a classic, fusilli twist to the plot. Should we tell you? Should we? Oh, well, okay. Driven to madness, the no-name husband is ready to die by suicide. In an attempt to stop him, Antonia screams, “Stop. It’s not true, any of it. I made it all up. The professore doesn’t exist!” But he shows up the very next minute—and guess what, ‘he’ is none other than Faraz in costume and mime makeup! As his wife and her lover affectionately greet each other, the husband, vexed with the taste of his own bitter medicine, dies by suicide. Oof, is that an Italian tragedy or what?
Director Faraz Khan says, “The play is a satire on marriage, which is perhaps the oldest institution. But just because it is old, doesn’t mean you can’t critique it. And in drama, satire is the best way to do it. Speaking in an exaggerated Italian accent just makes things more light-hearted. I wasn’t worried about how Hyderabad would receive it.”
Many of us couldn’t stop ourselves from breaking into funny Italian accents even after the play was over. Somehow, things just felt so comically peaceful. Indeed, everyone needs a good laugh once in a while and The Open Couple certainly is an out-and-out laugh fest!