Metroplus Theatre Fest. '08 - phase 1

Guess all that begins well ends well and the Korean group that was set to begin with the Midsummer Nights Dream...Hmmm as usual come Friday and I miss it anyways, the flip side being I enjoyed my radio show....man it was great music on friday the 1st of Aug. '08 - 214th day of the year, so that's a wash out for me....Now for Day-2 - trust me Rajit Kapoor and Shernaz Patel were simply superb and yes the Hall at which they performed indeed resounded the best of vibes for the prepared mind. And if "Love Letters" could have gone for 250 plus shows I will not be surprised to one fine day hear the 1000 plus record of this play. Awesome, touching, nostalgic, sentimental were perhaps some of the scribbling on the graffiti board that caused the purge of emotions! well you had it all!! Now allow me to blame myself for having missed the tete-a-tete with the actors in the cafeteria and I shall never forgive myself on that. But guess if only they could answer this query of mine....did they feel any sort of a change in their personal lives having performed this play 250 times plus of course allow me to ask why didn't Shernaz Patel ever think of the RK tattoo!

And Now talking about winners and losers, bulls and bears looks like this theatre festival has its share of kudos and brickbats and trust me if friday and saturday were the bull run days sunday was the day of the bears...and its not over with that. With all due praise and appreciation for the bold approach of Johannes von Matuschka in Electronic City by Project InDe Act, it looks like the idea of the project in action just did not sink in with more than half the audience, who showed their feedback by walking off and the remaining who just clapped through the appreciation. Well Count it didn't seem to work well here. The idea of a start without any introduction was great and the bit on the cellphone menace was well taken, trust the audience in Chennai would do well to deserve that. And it took a while for most to understand that these characters were props among the audience. While empathizing with the contemporary concept and new forays into theatre looks like somewhere you have lost the entertainment portion. The roles were played well but however there seems to be a disconnect. Actually I never knew that the role of Tom (the man in the film wandering about) was later attributed to a character on stage. Guess the transition wasn't so smooth and perhaps I still don't get the logic of not having a common face for the character Tom and how the TV shooting scenes get into the whole experiment. And coming to the violence on stage well thats another controversial issue, am certainly of the feel that violence of any form has its limits on stage. Expressing an act of frustration need not be in virulent violent scenes. Perhaps you should allow the audience to say "Stop" the next time we see such virulence on stage, now lets talk about the audience - actor interaction on stage....something to experiment about hey! That apart the lighting could have been worked around better and about the rain, that was awesome. Little did we realise it was raining outside all the same the sound of rain that we heard in the hall and I don't know, was it part of the sound recording or were we hearing it rain for real (I bet the hall has a weathering coat that is sound proof too!); Lastly a project of this nature is good but has to be abridged if you guys really want to take the message across.

And a word or two for the organisers, I bet a Sunday evening is not the right time for some experimentation. The denizens of Chennai have paid a price to watch an entertaining show and you are not doing justice to them with experiments on a Sunday evening!! And of course I sincerely wish the compere could have reminded us that there was a tete-a-tete with the Director and cast of the play, most of us left thinking that was the end, given the good night wishes! and the rain!!