Reading of Jean Paul Savage and the Reichenbach Fall

Bangalore Little Theatre does what it calls the Go Fourth! It is a gathering of interested folks under a roof to do something or anything about theatre. We watch movies, read scripts, chat...whatever. Today we met for the first time after the Ungrateful Man to read Jean Paul Savage and the Reichenbach Fall by Doug Huff. The killer part of the whole session was that Doug was there at the reading. And there was actually a very good turnout of people for the reading. There were around 20 - 30 people. That is a lot.

The play is set in 2 acts, deals about Jean Paul Savage middle aged, cigar loving, Philosopher, Cigar Loving , Private Detective. The play begins with a murder and ends with a couple (?) with some murders in the middle. All the work of the Male Menopause Killer! What is the real killer is the humor. The play is so funny! As someone pointed out, as you are reading the play you can actually imagine each of the characters. I had Humphrey Bogart playing Jean Paul Savage! That will tell you something about the genre. Not one line was wasted and the audience was in splits at the jokes coming in. There are stereotypes that are made fun of. And it is wonderful how everything gets tied up together. And the jokes flowed as the Krishna Raja Sagar in full flow.

BLT is planning to do a reading of this in Opus on Oct 9th. Be there!!

50 years of Bangalore Little Theatre

Amazing that an amateur theatre group has managed to survive for 50 years in Bangalore when the average age for a group is normally 8 years! If all goes well it will, in 2009-2010. I am new to this one, but yesterday I had an unique opportunity to meet the first few members of the group as we get down to plan for the golden jubilee. They recounted tales of how it all started. Looking at the group and reflecting on what we do today in BLT, I was surprised at the similarities between the ages. The passion to do theatre was foremost.

BLT has survived several Tsunamis. It has been given up to be dead with no money in the Bank. But people still managed to do pull it out. The torch has been passed from one generation to another. Needless to say it has flickered many times, but the flames never went out. It has lit several other torches that are burning bright. Many groups came out of BLT for whatever reason.

But even today BLT remains. There is something to that. It is amazing to see people even now talk passionately about what they did.

Lets hope that as the golden hour approaches all of us (the people who left and the people who remain), can contribute something to celebrate a unique organization that has managed to survive through sheer passion of many committed individuals.

And now for something completely BORING!!! - A Rant

I went in with a lot of expectations for EVAM's show in Bangalore today. They called it "And now for something completely different", the funniest comedy show ever. You cannot believe how bad it was. I met a few faces I knew. And I know they have a funny bone, miles better than I do. And it was a universal verdict, BORING! I needed to get this out of my system otherwise, I cannot sleep. This blog is supposed to be my gentler side...yeah right! Did I tell you I hated it! And others detested it as well. There was a whole group that walked out to go to Lalitha's parathas during the interval. It was that bad.

From what little I know, comedy is not about wanting to be funny, but actually being funny. I felt that EVAM had taken the audience for granted. There were many people who wanted to laugh desperately, but it just did not happen. Of course, I met a couple of people who said that they had a good time. I felt pity...Their lives must really suck! Did I tell you that I hated the play!

The disappointment is doubled because, I am amazed at the guts of these guys Sunil, Karthik to do Evam as a business. It is terrific that they took the risk and dared to dream. I think they have built a brand rather assiduously and have a dedicated bunch of followers in Bangalore. Their is hype and their shows are sell outs. (Aside: I know what it is to desperately try and have a 1/2 filled show!). But I feel that they are taking the crowd for granted. If the bad word spreads (I am sure it will after the show I saw), then people will want to see more quality. Not just guffaws. Todays performance was a disappointment because the team tried too hard with their accent and squeaky voices (GOD some body as Karthik to talk normally). The timing was not there. There was a couple of new things. Something on Thalaivar - Da Boss, which I liked. There was this concept of using dancers to double as stage hands. There were some silly jokes that I smiled. May be I am being too harsh here. May be it was a bad show, but then again may be not! All I got to see was this one show and I did not like it. We know that by now, don't we!!!

Grateful Men

Even before it all began, the first show I mean, we had a blast. It was a very different play that I was a part of. Lot of people in the cast, and lot of people to watch too! That made it a lot of fun. And The Hindu was kind to us as well.

When Vijay first told me about the play, I honestly was not too thrilled with the story of Monkey, Tiger, Snake etc. But when we read the script for the first time, there was magic. It was simple yet nice. Funny and witty. All of us actually enjoyed reading it.

Then the rehearsals with the SPOT 2007 folks and all the other ex-SPOTTERs and future SPOTTERs made it fun. I did not realize how the 3 months had gone away. There were times when the more diligent of us were mugging the lines, the lazy bunch that was in there (yours truly was part of it) winging it, eating 2 samosas (all right! all right! I had 3 :) ) that I have wondered how the hell will this turn out to be a play that people pay and watch. We were doing it for Dream a Dream...was it going to be Nightmare at Ranga Shankara, I feared.

Guiding us through this mayhem was Vijay (the Bheeshma Pita Maha, if you will) and Vijji (often wondered what is the deal with extra j). Vijay had to manage the real monkeys er...us, and Vijji the younger ones. Man did they pull it off! I am sure the kids who go to Vijji's Magic Puddles would be so lucky that they have her to learn from.

Anyways, show time came and went. The cast had a blast, the crew had fun and whatever happened we all laughed a lot backstage. One of my key learnings in this play was whatever you do have fun doing it in the play. The size of the part does not matter. There were so many folks fighting to play the rock, the friends, the people in Kashi. One of the best shows I had was when I was doing a 30 s role as the doctor who tries to save the princess...a blast. The other key learning was to do a play that entertains people, you need to be happy doing it. The happiness that you had on stage translated to one off stage. When the tempers were up backstage, the onstage team suffered and I guess the audience did not get a great show.

Of course, for me this play was a challenge as I had to do a critical part on a couple of days fighting through Laryngitis (for the record, I still am fighting!). So I must thank the kind doc who did not ask me to keep quiet but gave me drugs to tide things over, to my two special friends who went home and made turmeric milk with pepper and saffron (which was promptly attacked in the green room!). No thanks goes to the "Tigers" who beat the living daylights out of me :). And I will be a ungrateful dog, if I don' t say that the play was what it was because of the amazing kids. Kudos guys and gals.

And who knows, there may be more shows of the UGM and we can have more fun...I would be grateful.

Flame of the Forest - Not So Bright!

I saw the Flame of the Forest performed by Just Us Repertory at Ranga Shankara today. It is based on a Tamil Novel by Kalki called Sivakamiyin Sabatham. After sitting through a very good performance by the team, I left unsatisfied. I was wondering why. After reflection and intense discussions with my parents (fellow fans of Kalki's works), here is my take.

The factors that were an integral part of Kalki's story, the characterization, the purpose of the characters and the purpose of the story itself was absent in the play. I was able to understand the play because I was aware of the story. But if this were presented to someone who has no idea of the story, I wonder whether they would have been able to appreciate it. While the playwright tried to make the events very contemporary through citing war being incited by religion, or the futility of war, I could not really empathize with any of the characters. It was as though I was looking at a nice album on someone else coffee table. The greatness of reading Kalki's story is the ability to feel that you are part of the action. Here you were sitting back and watching it unfold. Neither did I feel the futility what Mahendra Pallava felt, nor sorry for Sivakami. Talking about Sivakami, where was Sivakamiyin Sabatham (or the oath of Sivakami)?

There are several ways of telling a story and every person should have the liberty to choose how they tell it. In this version of telling the events, you have Paranjothi (or Siruthondar) as the Sutradhar. Balakrishnan playing this part as well as Pulikesi and Shatrugna's son was absolutely superb. He was so convincing in each of the roles he played. The gent who played Mahendra Pallavan was good, but one felt that he was holding back as Vajrabahu. The ensemble was excellent. Sivakami, the young and old. were well rendered. Sivakami, the younger one, played by Mythili Prakash was very expressive and I am sure an accomplished dancer. One tinge, that I felt was she made sure that every instant she was on stage (even when she was not dancing), she reminded everyone that she is a dancer! She could "chill out" a bit. The director chose to play the part of the older Sivakami. She played to her strength of singing and did not not come out as a dancer!

When I was leaving the auditorium when all was said and done, I missed Naganandhi (the amazing chalu villain monk), I missed Maamallan, I missed Sivakami and her Sabatham. But that was compensated by the fact, that I enjoyed Parnjothi and Mahendra Pallavan. I liked the poetry and music and a new way of doing an Indian play. But still there was that what if....