Narenatplay

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR  Dil Ka Haal Sune Dilwala/ Hindi play Director : Mohit Takalkar Produced by : Aasakta Kalamanch/ Aadyam Theatre Written by : Sarah Ruhl, translated by Chirag Khandelwal  Cast : Dilnaz Irani, Sagar Deshmukh, Vrajesh Hirjee, Faezah Jalali, Bhaskar Sharma  Rating : *** 1/2 An old and familiar Nokia ringtone goes on and on in a lacklustre cafe, but the phone's owner pays no attention. The waitress, a wannabe starlet called Asha Parekh, soon realises that the customer at the table is dead. A narrator fills in the gaps on how she got there and where things are headed. The latest Aadyam Theatre play Dil Ka Haal Sune Dilwala , directed by Pune wiz Mohit Takalkar, takes you on a trip that begins with a few calls on this cellphone, which Asha (played by Dilnaz Irani) responds to by saying 'Ji' a few times before getting familiar with the darker and wackier secrets of the dead man, Max. DHSD - the production team's abbreviation, not mine - is quite a departur...

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR Lungs/ English play Director: Q Theatre company : QTP Written by : Duncan Macmillan Cast : Abhishek Saha, Dilnaz Irani Rating : *** 1/2 She's into a research course, and he's a musician struggling for gigs, ending up with a regular job. They get into arguments. Sorry, they have conversations. At times, they make sense. Sometimes, they know they're talking rubbish. Calling themselves W and M, they plan a baby. It's an idea that comes up suddenly on an IKEA visit. And that's where the dilemma begins. Should one welcome a child in a world that's slowly going to the dogs? Duncan Macmillan's Lungs , directed by Q, is a 95-minute two-character play that deals with issues a couple goes through, using the backdrop of a global scenario affected by overpopulation, climate change, bombs and global unrest. The couple is played brilliantly by Dilnaz Irani and Abhishek Saha. She's the over-analysing, garrulous type, often contradicting herself, and...

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR  Sweety On The Rocks/ Hindi play Director : Amogh Phadake Theatre company : TPot Productions Writer : Amogh Phadake Cast : Malikka Advani, Shashankk Vishnu Dutt, Susheel, Aryan Kashyap, Yash Mawani, Resham Shirvadhankar, Mahek Gupta, Vaishnav, Trushla Gupta  Rating : *** After a drunken night out, Abhishek and his friends Vicky and Shardul return to his place to continue the party. Strangely they see Abhishek's girlfriend Sweety sprawled on the floor, only to discover that her pulse is still. The basic concept of Amogh Phadake's Sweety On The Rocks is to provide a laugh riot. To a great extent it succeeds, specially as the interaction between the three lads is filled with cleverly-written dialogues. Spread over two acts an hour each, the play has enough twists and turns to keep you anticipating for more. However, the last half hour turns slapstick with the introduction of new characters. The main mystery is to find out how Sweety reached that state. Thi...

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR A Fish Ate My Cat/ English play Director : Yuki Ellias Theatre company : Dur Se Brothers Writer : Yuki Ellias   Cast : Yuki Ellias, Abhishek Saha, Mati Rajput, Kurien Joseph, Kunaal Sangtani, Petra Misquitta, Latoya Mistral Ferns-Advani Rating : ***** Some characters remain etched in one's mind, reminding you of someone you've known or heard of.Sarita Johnson, the protagonist of A Fish Ate My Cat , is one of them. She's a Bandra resident, in her 70s and living alone, with the maid Jayashree coming in a Virar fast to do her daily routine, cook surmai and gift her cheap lipstick she picked up on the way. When Sarita's son returns from Singapore, she greets him indifferently, saying, "I told remember having a son called Ajay", later needling him on why his father Isaac insisted on such a horrid name. Sarita, originally Shetty before marrying a Christian, has been played outstandingly by Yuki Ellias, an actor much younger than the character ...

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR  The Horse/ English play Director : Sunil Shanbhag  Produced by : Arpana/ Aadyam Theatre Written by : Julius Hay, with translation by Peter Hay Cast : Akash Khurana, Harssh A Singh, Neil Bhoopalam, Garima Yagnik, Rozzlin Pereira, Rajat Kaul, Deesh Mariwala, Radhika Sawhney  Rating : *** 1/2 ( Pictures taken from Aadyam's Instagram page) When one talks of Roman emperor Caligula (12-41 AD), one is reminded of the 1979 film with the brilliant Malcolm McDowell in the lead role. Much earlier, in the mid-1960s, Hungarian playwright Julius Hay had written The Horse , a play on him and Incitatus, believed to be his favourite horse. Theatre director Sunil Shanbhag had read The Horse in the 1980s, and always thought of staging it in India, after taking permission from Hay's son Peter, who translated it. It may have taken time but it's a perfect finale to Aadyam Theatre's Season 7. And who better than the outstanding Akash Khurana to play the narcissistic, e...

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR  One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest/ English play Directed by : Danesh AR Khambata Producers : INT Aditya Birla Centre For The Performing Arts and Silly Point Productions Writers ; Ken Kesey (novel), Dale Wasserman (for stage) Cast : Zafar Karachiwala, Anahita Uberoi, Sohrab Ardeshir, Joy Fernandes, Deven Khote, Sufiyan Junaid, Gillian Pinto, Digvijay Savant, Varun Narayan Rating: **** (This blogger saw the play at Tata Theatre, Nariman Point, on June 28. Details on more shows in Mumbai on social media of producers). When nobody's around, Chief Bromden has conversations with his dead 'Papa'. Otherwise, the Native American Indian spends all his time sweeping the floor, and those around him ignore him for being deaf and dumb. 'Chief', played by Joy Fernandes, is one of the inmates in the mental institution featured in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest , the play based on Ken Kesey's 1962 novel of the same name. He and his companions are unde...