Chandrahasa Reddy

Review on the ticketed show at K H KalaSaudha – Nov 2010
In a time when entertainment is overrun by multiplexes and commercial cinema its very easy for an art-form such as theater to slowly get forgotten. At a time when most theater performances are centered around tried and tested formulas and acclaimed authors, “Strangeness of Reality” performed by Theatrix provided not just a fresh breath but an all new experience of the stage.

Written by Débutant, Amit Ranjan Sahu and the first major production by the Democratic Actor’s Association of Misfit Theater, Strangeness of Reality is a peep into the mind of a celebrated actor; A look at his perfect life until one day when it all comes tumbling down around him. His search for understanding and trust from his wife, his friend, his brother and himself. Falling in the genre of a psychological thriller, SOR keeps pushing the line between imagination and reality.

Packaged on a stage that seemed like a beautiful painting and reverberating to the beat of the Tabla, the scenes from the tragic life of a famous star came to life. With seamless switching between the scenes and flawless parallelism of points of view; SOR holds you to the edge of your seat until the mind numbing climax.

Playing the lead, Amit is simply immaculate as Aman. It was quite inspiring to watch him stand up to the demands of a character that showed anger, happiness, romance, regret, helplessness and rejuvenation all within an hour long performance.

There were some spectacular moments in the play that simply got the emotion in you stirred up. The end of the monologue by Praveen Kumar, the tipping point of the climax by Akshay Prabhu, Rency Philip’s transformation from a romantic and lively wife to a woman totally in check of her emotions and the multifaceted performances of Karan Tilak Kumar and Ankur Agarwal totally left you speechless.

In the end it was the experience of something new that stood on it own and made the audience feel special. It is extremely encouraging to see young writers and actors take the reins of the art and comeout with such flying colors. Hopefully this is the beginning of more such wonderful and original plays in the near future.

Venky

I had the pleasure and the opportunity to watch some of my friends (and well, part of the MISF!T family), perform an in-house play titled “The strangeness of reality”. The script was written by Amit Sahu, who also played the protagonist and he also directed the play…whew! That’s in itself a lot. Unlike the traditional MISFIT plays, this was the first time without any involvement from anyone outside the cast. The 35 minutes that the play ran for, went on just fine, pushing the audience to their seats with the right amount of suspense mixed with emotions that made the evening quite enjoyable.

The story starts with an actor (Amit Sahu), shooting for his movie, where he realizes that he had actually participated in the shoot even before it had started, in the exact way it was about to happen. Similar incidents follow at home when he meets his wife (Rency Philip), so it kind of leads the audience into believing that the actor, has some kind of an ESP. Soon, he realizes he isn’t normal and meets a doctor (Ankur Agarwal), who happens to be his friend. There again, he foresees that the doctor is about to get a call from his wife and also tells the doctor the prescription given to him, even before any of these occur. The doctor advises him to consult a psychiatrist, which in a way alarms the actor. As the actor steps out of the hospital, he realizes he sees multiple events that are about to happen at the same time. On one side is his elder brother (Praveen Kumar), a failed actor, who is frustrated with life and his brother and attempts to commit a suicide. On the other side is his aged dad (Praveen, again), who is again about to die, due to his old age. Another side, he sees his sweet and innocent wife, plotting a devious ploy with his director (Karan Tilak Kumar) to kill him. Will the actor be able to stop any of this? Will he save his brother? His dad? Will he be able to save himself? Are all these real? These questions and their realities form the strangeness of reality, leaving the audience in a completely different end (which i don’t think i should reveal now, just not to disturb the future viewers).

Now, getting back into the stagecraft and associated mechanics, each and every character, completely fit the part. The cast had a mixed set of actors, 3 of them from MISF!T, who had done the level 1 and the level 2 workshops and 2 others (Karan and Akshay), who hadn’t undergone any formal training. But whether it was Akshay playing the DON in the initial scene as Amit’s co-actor in the movie, who immediately switches to this nervous first time actor when the scene is over, or Karan as a very understanding director in the first scene, suddenly switches back into this absolutely devious person towards the end, there wasn’t any difference from the rest of the cast. The interesting part to observe is each character had multiple shades to them, which was portrayed beautifully by the actors. Whether it was Rency, switching between this absolute trophy wife in the first scene to this devious vamp towards the end and then finally the caring wife or Praveen who switched between the elder brother to the father, so effortlessly, or the doctor, who was caught between being a friend and executing his responsibilities, each one had done their job brilliantly. But honestly, my personal favourite, is the protagonist, simply because he had to handle a gamut of emotions, ranging anywhere between a state of insanity to helplessness to fear to anger to joy and Amit handled it beautifully.

There was nothing to complain about the story or the play, except a few things:

• The end came in too fast and a little abrupt. Maybe, the end needs a little more work and maybe a more concrete ending, not leaving too much room for interpretations.
• The last scene with the father’s monologue could have been positioned better, since the father was lost and the audience could only hear his voice. Also, in my view, the father’s role did not add any specific value to the entire script.
• The point where Amit sees these events at the same time, he was completely upstage. Hence, the focus kept switching between Amit and the rest. Maybe, it could have been positioned better.

Besides these minor issues, the play was worth watching. And as someone said, i would have definitely paid to watch the show (Yes! you read it right… it was a non-ticketed show). Overall, it was a very enjoyable experience for me and it kept me completely engrossed. I would love to watch this play getting done once again. In “reality”, the play was far less “strange” and far more entertaining. Hats off to Amit and team for putting this up. Hoping to see more…

Kartik Prabhu

The play strangeness of reality was performed in a modest venue with minimal props. But the performance of the entire cast, the direction and the story was well worthy of a ticketed performance at a renowned theatre. From the very beginning the play caught my full attention and the intriguing turn of events definitely appealed to my curious half.

The script was definitely of high quality and was oozing class. The scenes were well written and there were very few unnecessary dialogues. The main storyline was intentionally surrounded by lot of uncertainty which got the audience thinking. Each member of the audience had a different interpretation of the story, though some probably missed the point as some parts of the story were complicated. Some amount of clarity needs to be established so that the story is well understood by most members of the audience. The end was surprising to say the least but it was also abrupt. It did not really meet the pace of the previous scenes. The concept of the protagonist taking the ‘4 steps’ though fascinating was lost due to lack of stress given to it and this definitely needs to be reiterated in the scene between the doctor and Aman. It may also be advisable to have this portrayed at the front section of the stage so that everyone can clearly see what’s happening.

The main reason for the play’s success was the honesty and the brilliance with which every member of the cast performed their part. Each one added their own individual flavour to their role. Giving individual attention to each cast member:

Akshay: Was deeply in character and played the role of a gangster very naturally. What I appreciated even more was his immediate switch back to a timid upcoming actor the minute the shot changed.

Amit: Started a bit shaky with a not so natural depiction of a cop, more work needs to be done with the expressions. But did a great job with rest of the roles especially the parts where he was acting confused and crazy.

Karan: Had a great command on his dialogues and delivered them with good volume and clarity. His stage presence was unmatched and caught my full attention every time he delivereded his dialogues.

Rency: She acted very natural as a normal wife. But she also did a great job of dropping minor hints of irritation and a possible dysfunctional marriage. Every miming action was well thought and was well understood by the audience.

Ankur: He managed to play a very sophisticated and totally believable doctor. His actions during the scene while interacting with imaginary patient and secretary made them almost seem lifelike. There was an outburst of anger which was probably not needed as it didn’t suit his character. There was a slight trait of evil in the way the scene progressed. That may need to be taken care of.

Praveen: He did a great job as the brother. Had a very constant and flawless accent that matched well with his character. The dialogues were apt and I could feel the pain he was expressing due to the expressions and the fake laughs.

As a dad he did a fair job. It was almost a bit too dramatic at times and could have been mellowed down.

Overall the play was a great success. The direction was well planned and many scenes had a very artistic look to it. The cues were perfect and the flow of the dialogues was never lost and every scene was connected well. Though there were a few minor hiccups like the dad being hidden while delivering his lines. But those were pardonable when you look at the play as whole. I thoroughly enjoyed the 40 mins and would soon like to see them perform this on a bigger stage. Great show guys!

Ian

The total duration of the play was forty minutes. It actually surprised me that a story of this nature was neatly wrapped up within this span of time. It was enough to provoke the audience to think in different directions and vie for their interpretation to be the right one. Bottom line is that it made people think and that is one achievement in itself.

Apart from being thought provoking, it was also technically quite well done. The blocking and the cues, the movement on and off stage, the weaving of one scene into the other was beautifully carried out. If so much was managed with just one halogen lamp, I wonder what the effect would be on a full stage with lights falling on from so many different angles.

Aman, the protagonist of the play depicts the agony he goes through and the stress he indirectly subjects the people in his life to. I would not want to divulge details of the story here but when I got home and got thinking about the title, I found it very befitting indeed. The dilemma of Aman while being torn between his convictions and self doubt, the tug of war played by his ego and his need for genuine affection were elements that were depicted in subtle shades by Amit playing the role of Aman. Of course, none of those shades would have come out so strongly if they were not supported by the brilliant
and realistic performances of the others – Rency as Sneha – his wife, Praveen playing both the brother as well as the dad, Akshay pitching in as the co-actor, Karan playing Tarun the frustrated director and Ankur playing the classy doctor and friend. Each one brought in lovely depictions of their parts. Scenes that hit across to me were the doctor smiling as Aman went on a tangent describing his version of the diagnosis, Akshay’s change in character from the actor in the film to the actor on the set, Praveen’s fantastic characterisation of the brother bitter over wasted years and affections and Rency’s closing line that just pierced across and laid the final layer of a very engaging and intriguing play.

I would definitely love to watch this play again and see what more they would add to make this more effective. Because there is great potential I see in this story that was conceived and written by Amit who plays Aman. There is definite scope for improvement and in the overall punch in the story as it hits home. For the kind of story it is, I think this impact is something that can be worked upon. But in all, I think it makes for a very enjoyable watch and would recommend it to friends who prefer to spend an evening watching a theatrical performance. Well done guys. Cheers