Nothing’s barred here!
HYDERABAD: The Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation showcased a theatre drama Cookie Machine in the city last week. The theatre production directed by Natasha D’Souza was well received by an audience of all ages. It stars Jeff Goldberg and Karan Pandit as the leads.
The 90 minute long drama held the audience’s attention with its actors’ incredible range of emotions, quick wit, well-timed humour and sass which broke the monotony that the single-scene play would have otherwise created. The entire play is a conversation between an estranged father and son at a bar with the father progressively getting sloshed.
The script is a collection of twists which made the audience gasp and gape at every turn. Written by Jeff Goldberg, it was meant as a tribute to his late best friend, Owen Stewart: “‘Cookie Machine’ is actually the name of a song written by Owen, it talks about a daughter confronting a man about him being her father. I miss him terribly and his lyrics conceptualised the play.”
These actors’ whose niche method acting is, did an applaud worthy job in making the audience empathise and identify with the characters that they portrayed. Both Mumbai based actors were excited by the prospect of working with each other and the rapport that the two share made it possible to wrap up the rehearsals within a fortnight. “I got emotional during the reading. I loved the story but I couldn’t really identify with anything my character had gone through. I had to stretch my imagination to understand the character’s emotional predicament so that I could do justice to it,” says Karan Pandit, who plays Karim Sheikh, the son of a rockstar/absentee father, Jack Ray (Jeff Goldberg).
The story is about Jack Ray, a rockstar musician whose fame in the ‘80s is almost equal to that of the Beetles. He falls in love with a beautiful Indian girl named Alia Sheikh. Their torrid relationship is not a happily-ever-after and ends abruptly. Alia has twins (Laila and Karim Sheikh) who know nothing about the identity of their father whilst growing up. The son, who is fraught with the need of some emotional connect and sense of belonging after the untimely death of his mother and sister confronts Jack Ray. The lack of emotion and blatant flippancy with which Jack dismisses his son’s claims and the utter desperation of the son breaks your heart. “Jack’s character says stuff in order to deflect. He is terrified, but deep down he is a soft man who loves and yearns for his son very much. The play makes you realise how much you love your children,” says Jeff Goldberg.