What would happen if a cheater cheated a cheater, and then broke a deal with the cheated cheater? When used as a plot of a play, the situation takes a turn for the hilarious. A knot of events and eccentric characters come together in John Patrick’s 1981 play Cheating Cheaters . Did I refer to the cheater who cheats the cheater as a man? Well, it isn’t. Two sisters, one smart and the other not-so-smart, outwit a cat burglar and a corrupt cop and make them accomplices to their ingenious plans of earning money, the crooked way. Sisters Angelica and Theresa impersonate nuns to earn money. They hide this fact from their niece Tania, their deceased brother’s daughter, all the while easing their conscience by supporting her to be an artist.
The “pious sisters” meet a cat burglar and cop under bizarre circumstances. Though the four initially suspect each other, they finally decide to join hands to become a formidable team of cheaters. They devise a plan to rake in more money. But their wicked plans go awry when Tania suddenly returns home.
The script sparkles with gems of humour of every kind, from puns, to a play of words and repartee, to sarcasm and slap-stick. There’s never a dull moment. The only flip-side is that you might tire of laughing so hard, you need nano-seconds breaks from it all to breathe.
Masquerade Youth Theatre, in association with Indian Stage, staged Cheating Cheaters at the Alliance de Francaise. The hard work put into the production was evident from the attention paid to every detail, from the sets to the lights. The actors, though a young bunch, essayed their roles with surprising maturity. The play is fast-paced, for which the actors must have stamina. It isn’t easy playing, say, an edgy Theresa or a stern Angelica or even a scatter-brained cop. But the cast managed this well. Each actor complemented the other, no one actor dominated, each of them shone in their own unique way. Tanvi Patel as Angelica was impressive. Nayantara Nayar as Theresa was a good foil to Angelica’s character. Vaidhya M. Sundar as Bozo was endearingly goofy while Srutanjay Narayanan as Benjamin was competent. Though Pavithra Ramesh’s appearance as Tania was brief, her performance did not go unnoticed.
Harshavardhan Ganesan and Vaidhya M. Sundar, the directors of the play, should be given credit for choosing to stage an unconventional play. Though the plot is absurd and the characters incredible, everyone in the audience was drawn to the story. The directors got it right by making the play fast-paced and dialogue delivery snappy. With Cheating Cheaters , Masquerade Youth Theatre proves that a professional attitude towards theatre can do wonders.
