Paritosh Painter’s See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, Do No Evil was the result of a modified 30-minute Gujarati play that actor-director-playwright saw at an intercollegiate event. “I thought it could be adapted as a comedy-thriller. But, at the same time, I was worried about its texture because when you sometimes expand on a short play you might lose the audience. Luckily, that worked out for us," he says.
The play made its debut five years back. Paritosh says that he added more punches and jokes to the older version, “While the plot is the same, I feel this version is better. When we started off, we didn’t experiment much and as we went along we knew what was and wasn't working and now the play has matured, thanks to the changes,” he says adding that there are some changes in the cast as well.
Last week, they staged the play in Hong Kong and Paritosh is all praise for the audience there. He feels similarly about the audience in Chennai as well and says that he loves performing here. “The best part about performing in Chennai is that people come with open minds. They know what to expect from a comedy play and if they feel like laughing at something, they will. It makes the artistes on stage feel good and makes us want to give more,” he exclaims.
As See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, Do No Evil is primarily a comedy, Paritosh says the audience can expect a lot of fun, laughter and, contrary to popular belief, a thick plot. “This play is one of a kind, a thriller laced with comedy and, based on the response we got at Hong Kong, we know it'll work here.”
Apart from theatre, Paritosh has dabbled in Bollywood as a writer for films such as Dhamaal and Paying Guests . However, he says that when it comes to the two, nothing beats performing on stage. "While movies are great fun, the laughter and applause that you get while performing on stage give you a high; you're being appreciated at the very moment. That gives us artistes a lot of energy!"
The play will be staged at 7.30 p.m. on November 15 at Sir Mutha Venkata Subba Rao hall. For tickets visit bookmyshow.com , or call 9841144100.
