A motivational speaker once said “Never let inexperience get
in way of your ambition”. While it makes a lot of sense and is motivating but
it can spell disaster in wrong hands. The play depicts such a disaster perfectly. The result of having an inexperienced,
overconfident director putting up a play with self absorbed and eccentric
nincompoop of a cast will drive audiences to the limit of their patience and
have them demand refund. Do not worry, I am not talking about
this play but about the play within this play. Confused? I did not demand my money back because I could
barely stop laughing through the entire play. The play takes you through the
process and the end result of couple of crazy people, with IQ as low as our
economic growth rate, coming together and trying and create a theatrical
masterpiece. The play begins with the said play being performed in front of the
audience but then suddenly everyone starts to improvise resulting in a classical
greek tragedy looking like comedy of errors. The entire cast has fit to their
role like a well fitted glove but the play belongs to Shibani Bedi – the
recovered (or has she) mentally unstable Punjabi girl who brings her Punjabi flavor
to Medea’s role. There were moments when she sent the audience in splits even
with her mere body language without even saying a word.
The Akshara theatre was a perfect setting for the play as
there is no dead spot in the stage at anytime. Actors keep performing their acts
in the background with as much zest as the performer in focus. The small stage
helped audience capture all that is going on the stage. Not only was the script
hilarious, the delivery by every actor was spot on. Adhiraj Sharma needs a
special mention too playing an over-confident, self absorbed, inexperienced,
talentless actor. All characters get into character to get out of it. Arun
Prakash delivers a phenomenal performance as the inexperienced Director, whose
English would make the Queen laugh rather than feel offended.
What makes the play ironic is the fact that it is actually
the first play written, directed and music composed by Pallav Chander and newly
formed Turquoise Palette. Let’s see what other colors this palette has. However,
while this might be the first time he wore director’s shoes, he is no newbie to
the theatre scene and it shows with the attention to detail and the engaging
screenplay.
I highly recommend this play. It was by close friend’s
birthday and I took him there and he said it is the best birthday he could’ve
had. So, do catch it the next time. Don’t miss it. I won’t.
Production By: Turquoise Palette
Written, Directed and Music By: Pallav Chander
Lights by: Vinimay
Cast:
Director: Arun Prakash
Hades: Adhiraj Sharma
Aphrodite: Shibani Bedi
Zeus: Shekhar Murugan
Psoidon: Nand Chopra
Dancer: Shivani Nagar
Let Zip: Varoon P Anand
Choreographer: Dimple Kaur
Guruji: Harish
Veteran Guest: Sarthak Mattoo
Assistant: Subhashani/ Debontika
