KOCHI: Directing a play when the cast is below 12 years old is no easy task, especially when the play concerned is a musical. But Michael Muthu’s boundless energy seemed to pass on to the kids and they obliged with the correct words, moves and music. The play - Oliver Twist - is an initiative of Magic Theatre, founded and run by Preetha Gibu and Susheela Umesh.
Michael Muthu visits Kochi once a week to train the kids for the play to be staged in August.
Michael or Mike Muthu, as he is called, has been the most active presence as actor and director in theatre circles in Chennai for the past 15 years.
With his expressive face and powerful voice, Mike looks every bit a theatre person. Always been known for his unconventional approach to theatre, the theatre production house founded by him called Broadwalkers is today one of the best known theatre groups in Chennai. Their productions have received rave reviews - 'Biloxi Blues', 'The Hairy Ape', 'Sleuth', 'The Pied Piper of Hamlin' and 'Jesus Christ Super Star' being some among them.
Right now, Mike is busy staging 'Jesus Christ Superstar', possibly the only rock opera performed in India and his favourite, for the fourth time. “There is nothing blasphemous about the play, he says. It’s just Jesus Christ’s point of view with rock music as the background. People in Tamil Nadu have accepted it now.”
Mike is also in the process of putting up a stage version of the animated movie ‘Shrek’ for which a script has been developed specially for the stage. What with 'Shrek', 'Oliver Twist' and 'Jesus Christ Super Star', it might seem as if comedy and fantasy are his forte. But he says he likes dark comedy best, like his version of Peter Shaffer’s psychological drama ‘Amadeus,’ where his acting was much lauded, and ‘Wait until Midnight.’
Mike Muthu has another distinction which not many know of - he has acted in Manoj Night Shyamalan’s first film venture - 'Praying with Anger' - which he made when still a student. “That was a long time ago,” Mike waves it off. But his first love is theatre and that is where he wishes to excel.
However, the obstacles are many, the lack of good script writers in English being the biggest, according to him. “There are excellent script writers in Malayalam, Marathi and Tamil. As for English, I can count the good ones with my fingers, probably because theatre in English is a rather new phenomenon for us. The scripts I get remind me of Hindi movies I’ve seen a 100 times over. For that reason, our standards are still backward, in the amateur stage.
"When I say professional, I mean actors and directors who work full-time. Most theatre actors I know have nine to five jobs; acting is a hobby for them, not a profession. Probably because the production companies can’t pay professional actors.”
So why can’t he himself write a good script?
“I am a director, not a writer. I can do a good play only if I get a good script. I’m still waiting for that Indian writer who will blow my socks off,” says Mike, whose dream project is to stage a fullfledged Mahabharata, perhaps next year.
ashaprakash@expressbuzz.com
