The seventh edition of The Hindu MetroPlus Theatre Fest came to an end on August 24 with staging of the play Return of the Dirty Old Men . Thank you audience for making the Fest a huge success and congratulations Ravi Teja Sangeetha , you are our ‘Citizen Reviewer’.
DCH pulls it off
This play, whose title promised a play which is intermixed with dollops of crude and dirty comedy turned out to be more of a talent hunt/exhibition play. At the surface level, it is a simple woo-the-woman plot — it deals with the social perception of one’s age. The script, though monotonous and common, has its moments of brilliance with dialogues like ‘retired citizens are youth with sixty years of experience’. At one point in the play, there are too many actors on the stage and the inclusion of recorded messages (in video) by other prospective contestants felt unnecessary.
To sum it up, the Dramatic Circle of Hyderabad has got amazing set of actors whose mere screen presence leaves you greedy for more, but it has to refine its scripts for the better.
Ravi Teja Sangeetha
Simply told
The title is somewhat misleading. The protagonists are just chronologically challenged. They are three decent and fun loving-if naive and wide-eyed-souls. They try to pit their ‘youth plus sixty years experience’ against plain youth, in wooing a yet-to arrive European girl, but figure out quickly enough that it is a losing battle.
Unfazed, they sit back and enjoy themselves in their customary watering hole, as a rib-tickling bedlam is let loose around them as a youthful assortment of talented weirdos unleashes a wacky dance-drama-music potpourri.
A simple script and a technically complex presentation combine to make for an innovative theatre experience. In a sense, the theme is a metaphor for the old style theatre trying to adapt to the new.
M. Hanumantha Rao
Amateur attempt
Claimed to be a light-hearted comedy, the play sure was pretty light, for it offered very few genuine laughs. While Act 1 seemed like a drag until the ‘Dirty Old Men’ entered stage, Act 2 was a mesh of too many characters which ended in a very weird and disappointing climax. Though one must appreciate a few scenes in which the puns and witty dialogues were just brilliant. One must also appreciate the Western Hyderabad Music Foundation who, (even if under-used) did an appreciable job. Sudden glitches, forgetting cues/dialogues, the absurd P.G. Wodehouse references and the direction, all showed that DCH was definitely an ‘amateur’ theatre group. All in all, for a first-timer, it was an OK attempt. Probably a little refining and a better script would’ve made this play a better watch.
Maithri Saraswatula
A letdown
Finally the curtains were drawn. The play Return of the Dirty Old Men was such a let down compared to the Mumbai plays. Except for Anuj Gurwara, the singer, Namita Anupoja, for her yoga postures and Haleem Shaikh, the Kuchipudi dancer, there was nothing in the play to applaud for. Hyderabad theatre artistes need to work harder to polish their acting skills.
Ravi Meenu
Entertainment complete
‘The Return of the Dirty Old Men’ was a play which showed that everyone has the desire to win, be it the young or the old however bleak their chances are. The play had references to a lot of famous personalities. To start with, a couple of Frank Sinatra songs including one of my all time favourites ‘Strangers in the night’ at the beginning and songs by Julio Iglesias and Elvis Presley’s ‘Hound Dog’ sung by one of the contestants towards the end of the play was brilliant. The entry of the three old men was memorable as they quoted a lot of dialogues from famous plays of Shakespeare. The comparison drawn between Shakespeare and P.G. Wodehouse, two of my favourite authors was very interesting. The enthusiasm shown by the three old men in competing for winning the heart of the European girl by learning new skills like French, German and music two weeks prior to her arrival was hilarious. However, towards the end they finally realise they are too old for this stuff and end up as the judges of the competition. All in all, it was a huge cast with brilliant performances and thus entertainment complete!
Mrinaal K Abraham
Bring back aesthetics
On the last day, Return of the Dirty Old Men by Dramatic Circle Hyderabad was almost bordering a school anniversary day play. The timings of the play in terms of briskness and presentation and stage management are poor in taste and approach. The unstoppable yoga demonstration doesn’t carry any relevance either to the play enriching the stage. Most of the lines some of actors have not internalised the lines. Hence, it looked like recitation in certain places.
When I share these points of view as a matter of concern for the theatre and The Hindu. Some of the vernacular plays across the country are many times better than Neo-Anglican plays as staged now for this season.
I request the concerned in The Hindu to intervene at this juncture and take stock of the feedback which will go a long way to bring back the aesthetics and refinement to theatre fest in the years to come.
N. Mukteswara Rao
