Theatre.. Reality in your Face

Yesterday, i saw another brilliant play by Evam.. ART..a serious comedy... allow me to rewind in time a little bit and go back to basics..

Evam is a well established theatre group from Chennai who do plays mostly in Chennai.. lately they have been trying their luck in Bangalore and have been very successful at it.I got hooked on to plays and theatre thanks to them. My first play was called "Barefoot in the Park" by Evam.

I was so mesmerised by the fact that theatre could be so real.. well it is real.. but what i'm trying to say is that it felt like the story was real and unfolding right in front of your eyes.. All sense of everything around you will fade away and all thats left are the characters and the story..i used to believe that theatre can never be as entertaining as a movie because all they have is props to take the audience into the lives of the characters... but i was wrong.. they have more.. they have sheer raw talent and an appreciative live audience and instant accolades.. no effects.. no technology.. nothing.. all they need is the spontaneous applause.. the cheer.. the sighs..the wrapt attention of the audience right there in front of them.. it is such an adrenalin rush.. they can take u back in time.. into the future.. to paris.. or timbaktoo!!! with absolutely nothing but make believe.. just that. In my opinion, it is the most beautiful form of live art.. the actor can be anything he wants.

A play is a lot harder to pull off because the crowd is right there in front you and there are no retakes.. one mistake will stand out like a large zit on your nose.. everything is about perfect dialogue delivery and even more perfect timing. I believe that theatre artists are by far more talented than the movie stars .. for obvious reasons. The most obvious reason being that the theatre artists get live feedback about their performance every instant and thats a lot of pressure to cope with.. especially when they are not doing so well.

Thats why I LOVE THEATRE..

Back to the present.. ART was about the complicated friendship of three guys who had nothing in common except their tendencies to get into frequent arguments with each other over a white peice of canvas masquerading as a painting. Not one sentence spoken by the three characters was funny to them but the audience was rolling in laughter..Each line in the script was intended to be the words and thoughts of the characters in absolute seriousness.. u have to watch the play and understand why everyone laughed so hard.. all because of the circumstances and the timing.. thats the beauty of this "serious comedy".

I have higher hopes out of the play that they are going to peform this friday onwards..Its called Double Comedy- Hysteria..This one is going to be a complete laugh riot.. one of my favourite actors is going to be acting in this play.. Karthik senior.. who is a fantastic comedian and one of the most brilliant actors i have ever seen.. not to be confused with Karthik Kumar (Junior, who i think is extermely charming ;D because of that oh-so-disarming-smile).

All those who have not given theatre a fair chance should definitely come and check them out this weekend at Rangashankara. Then they can decide whether they were right or wrong about it. I bet you will love it and get hooked to it like i did:))