The informality of the supper theatre is what I love the most. And K.V. Siddhartha of CATS and Ranjana Singhal of That’s’Y Food are to be lauded for bringing back a way of life quite lost to us – where simple entertainment makes us chuckle and think. Just the fact that I walked in, sat where I wanted to and spent not more than an hour watching a play and then went back home happy and well in time is just marvellous.
We got not one, but two playlets as it is described on the programme. They were by Dr. Vithal Rajan, a much travelled, much respected political economist and academic involved in developmental work and, more pertinently to us that evening, in writing.
In Sisterhood Circles, the first play opens with some well turned out women wanting to ‘uplift’ their less fortunate sisters.
There is the royal Rajkumari Renuka (Parshathy J. Nath), professor Padmaja (Rukshana Lelinwalla), Honbl Minister Divya Devi (Geetha Laxman), Krishnakumari (Ambujakshi Sankar), NRI Dr. Sarojini), Corporate honcho, Sunita Agarwal (Gayathri Govind) and Lakshmi Bai (Chanda Kathuria).
They have met to discuss how a company’s CSR can help them in their endeavour. There is the usual talk about separate toilets for women and crèches for their babies at work, interspersed with talk of annoying mothers-in-law and unreliable cooks. Jewellery, shopping, celebrities and five star accommodation ultimately wins the day over sisterhood, and the play closes with the women willing to make a deal with the corporate to promote its pesticides in exchange for not-so-noble favours.
From an all women cast, the next play, Indian Scams and More which had all men. A chief minister (Rajeev Mathur), his advisor (Anish Mathai), personal assistant (N. Sethunarayanan), DGP (Sunil Mukundan), the fraud Rajkumar Reddy (Rajesh Bohra) and a swami ji (Somy). Like Laxman’s cartoons they were all instantly recognisable for what they were. They were caricatures all, but still disturbing. How commonplace it has become for ministers and others in high offices to be regarded as corrupt to the core.
While movies, and indeed real life, has perpetuated the image of the corrupt police, it was still uncomfortable to watch it in a play. As was the reality of how easy it was for people in the corridors of power to get away with murder, literally.
The evening concluded with a chat with Vithal Rajan who said he always wanted to write and only after he retired did he get a chance to do so. He observed how we as a people needed to loosen up and not have such fragile egos. But the best thing for me was that he spoke of P.G. Wodehouse, of lunchtime theatre in Canada where he sneaked out during the break to act in street plays and of course his love for Shakespeare and how the bard was ever relevant.
This is the kind of interaction I, and many like me, miss in our lives these days. It was off the cuff, interesting, interactive, thought provoking and spontaneous, like it is amongst a gathering of friends.
Of course, Ranjana’s food made it a little more delicious.
