What colour, your humour?

From dark to slapstick, Riding Madly Off In All Directions explored many shades

June 15, 2017 03:50 pm | Updated 05:29 pm IST

Motley Theatre group’s Riding Madly Off In All Directions

Motley Theatre group’s Riding Madly Off In All Directions

Humour can be of many shades. It is a spectrum, ranging from the slapstick and crass to the absurd and black comedy. None seemed to have explored this better than the Canadian author Stephen Leacock. As one watches Motley Theatre group’s Riding Madly Off In All Directions presented by Naseeruddin Shah and his family — Ratna Pathak Shah, Imaad Shah, Vivaan Shah and Hiba Shah — you are tempted to go to the library and pick up a book of Leacock.

The play was a tapestry of short stories, essays and auto-biographical elements from the Leacock collection. All of them were a reflection on the different kinds of humour which capitalise on the misfortunes of others. Call it a clinical dissection of the concept of what makes people laugh.

Motley Theatre group’s Riding Madly Off In All Directions

Motley Theatre group’s Riding Madly Off In All Directions

 

My favourite was a segment enacted by Ratna Pathak Shah, a funny take on mathematics. Pathak narrated the story of A, B, C and D, the characters one finds in all our mathematical problems in school. The story gave life and soul to these faceless letters that have always been a nightmare to average school kid. Shadow play endowed a film-like texture to this episode. As Pathak narrated the story, we could see A, B, C and D enacting it.

Imaad reminded you of a young Shah — the drawl of his voice and suave demeanour was unmistakeably like his father’s. He was subtle and effective. Vivaan was hilarious in the The Conjurer’s Revenge, where he played a magician, who repays his audience that does not have faith in him. Towards the end, he asked a man to hand him over his spectacles and handkerchief, which he destroyed in front of the audience. Well, if they expected him to return the belongings, he didn’t. To their collective horror, the bitter magician just closed shop and left!

Welcome interlude

This segment used multimedia quite effectively. The screen showed visuals of a handkerchief and the pair of specs being crushed as Vivaan enacted these scenes. This brought in a welcome interlude to an otherwise verbose play.

For all its eliteness in the first half, the play didn’t fail to engage with the masses and current issues. Beggars on pavements on a cold night, scrounging for food on the Christmas eve, provided the emotional quotient. Imaad wondered why children’s stories have to be shorn of pain and violence, when they actually like it rough! This is a statement that applies to all art forms. Often, fine arts and literature are removed from reality. Like in this production, on several occasions, the subject of the play and its preoccupations seemed far from reality.

However, the philosophical puzzles of Leacock on humour are still relevant. Though the way they are conceptualised is a tad old-fashioned, like the conventional grand proscenium production. If only Motley experimented with the format a bit, by involving more music, physical theatre and an innovative use of lighting, this play could have had more layers to it. Adapting the narrative to the Indian context would also have helped.

Stellar performer

The last part, however, compensated for all the shortcomings. Thirty minutes of watching just Shah on stage is a pleasure for any theatre lover. He enacted The Man in Asbestos — an allegory — where a man travels to the future to see how humanity is faring. But, he soon realises that people of the futuristic age have lost the zeal to live, their hearts have turned into stone and their souls are rusting. You can just listen to that voice, brewed like fine wine, for hours.

BBCL Breeze presented Riding Madly Off In All Directions , brought to Chennai by Pooja Malhotra and Led Lum Lighting Simplified, in aid of Vajra, an organisation to empower women. It was staged at The Music Academy.

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