It was a day of theatre, laughter and good food. The Coimbatore Art and Theatrical Society (CATS) did what they do best: good theatre.
So far the team had done only adult plays but, with Oliver , a theatrical adaptation from the musical based on the Charles Dickens classic, they moved into children’s theatre.
The Residency’s Legend Hall was a sea of school students, who sat spellbound watching the play. The play, directed by Tanvi Palaniappan, opens at the workhouse where boys line up to be fed their daily portion of gruel. When young Oliver dares to ask for more, Bumble, the warden, sells him to an undertaker. Oliver runs away and meets the Artful Dodger, a young pickpocket. Through the Dodger, he meets Fagin, who runs the Thieves’ Kitchen, and Nancy, a bar maid in Victorian London.
The play used multimedia and songs to convey the narrative. By the end of it, the children in the audience were singing along with the actors. Llewellyn Xavier played Bumble with great aplomb. Kethiki Santhosh, who played Oliver, was adorable and captured the hearts of the audience. The ‘Oom Pah Pah’, sung by Tanvi who played Nancy, was a big hit. “Melding music and theatre is not easy,” she says. “It takes a lot of physical effort.”
Allan Francis, as the crooked Fagin, added spunk and finesse to the play. The Std. XII student is a big Rajnjkanth fan. “I love his anti-hero roles. I tried to improvise Fagin’s body language. He is not entirely evil, because he is protective of the children.” He says he finds villainy more interesting than heroism.
The second play of the evening was Don’t Dress For Dinner , a comedy about marriage, infidelity and confusions. K.V. Siddhartha and Chanda Khaturia played the “happily married” couple, Bernard and Jacqueline who were cheating on each other. Bernard has planned an evening with his mistress, assuming that Jacqueline will be visiting her mother. But Jacqueline cancels her plan at the last minute. So Bernard asks his best friend, Robert, to pretend to be the mistress’ boyfriend and help hoodwink his wife. Things do not go as he planned because Robert is having an affair with Jacqueline. To make matters worse, Robert is confronted by a talkative, naive cook instead of his mistress. Things get even more confusing when the real mistress, the suavve Suzanne turns up.
The evening was a total laugh riot. The actors excelled in their roles. It was as if the roles had been tailormade for them. The audience enjoyed the play, as they dug into the sumptuous fare laid out by the Residency chefs.
