I stand poised... no, perched would be a better expression... best would be precariously perched... Anyway, I stand precariously perched on the precipitous edge of a momentous occasion.
I have always believed "the worst is yet to come". And I have always answered the query, "which is your best production?" with "my next one perhaps!". But now I know. This is apocalypse, now! Which is my worst production? My next one. Right now... in two days time.
If I were asked to sequence in whirlwind buzzer in KBC... Rate the recent theatre shows you saw in the order of bad worse worst... it would be A: KoF B: Antigone C: Chap 2... Now I have something coming up on my own doorstep and I am staring at the twin barrel with the bullet breathing on me in all its inherent deathly form: my immediate production of the J Theatre play I have been involved in directing over the last month and half... going public on 23rd and 24th at Rani Seethai Hall. "On Account of Being a Woman" (a title I have thrust upon the script much to the chagrin of the beleagured script-writer). It's an explosive script according to me. And in the hands of a good director... (add to it, with an excellent cast), it can stun the audience. Most things that could go wrong with it has gone wrong. But am not going to offer excuses because, as far as the audience is concerned, What you See is What you Got and Who cares What happened Behind the Scenes???
If KBC asked me to rate, it would be thus: KoF - Bad, Antigone - Worse, Chapter 2 - Worst, On Account of Being a Woman - Worsted (am not sure if I would be in a suiting, but am sure to be shot at the end of this show by the public and the theatre fraternity... if it doesn't pan out!). But there are three more immediate english productions coming up, let's see. Bala's directing The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht (in an adapted form) for Ethiraj College (24 and 25 at Museum Theatre) and Mike is doing a couple of Murray Schisgals - sometime early March (Schisgal is to Mike as John Patrick is to KK and Neil Simon is to Evam!) for LTS (Loyola Theatre Society) and some new company called Boulevard View Productions is doing Neil Simon's Come Blow Your Horn! At Alliance 24-26 Feb (Ever heard of it Simonites out there?). So plenty to hope for in Chennai's alternative Theatre, i.e., considering the oldest group is the only mainstream group in town.
God help the paying public!
Will let you all know what happened to my show, on 24th night in my follow-up blog!
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5 comments:
I wonder how that happened. I shall refrain from commenting any further until the next post.
Oh it happens. Honesty is not the only virtue required to churn out good theatre. Sometimes it just doesn't pan out in spite of best efforts because there is no mother lode beyond the color yellow. After the tech night day before i had no hopes... but last night the girls did me reasonably proud. One of the very decent opening nights I have had... both in terms of performance, given their talent levels and comprehensibility of higher layers of interpretations of the script, and in terms of supportive audience. So, am not disappointed. Let's see what today holds. There's a 11.30 forenoon show and a 7 pm evening public premiere. Last night was college audience. Tonight is the test.
Oh man, I didn't know you had a play on today! Any chance of a special "Repeated due to overwhelming public demand" show?
Hehe... more like "electrocuted due to mass psychopathia homicidus" with the intended target being KK, would be appropriate. At the moment no idea. We may repeat the show in March somewhere in the middle. Will keep you posted.
Please do. Thanks :)
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