ARCHANA ASTHANA
“Rumors”, the 24th play by Neil Simon and his first farce, written at a time to overcome personal angst, stage all aspects of this genre successfully! The first play of Naatak’s 25th season, directed by Harish Agastya, whose witticism matches that of the playwright, has skillfully adapted the play to the Indian context with name and location changes, and numerous local references.
The play is superbly cast, and all actors deserve kudos for a well-concerted effort. The comical situations, dialogue, especially the pauses between them, and facial expressions set the stage for a laugh riot as evidenced by hysterical laughter of attendees at Cubberley Theater in Palo Alto, on the opening weekend.
The curtain opens to reveal a beautifully constructed set of an elegant two-story home where the hosts, Chakra and Meera’s 10th-anniversary party is to be held. The arrival of the first guests to the sound of gunfire, the discovery that the host has shot himself in the ear and the absence of the hostess and their servants sets the farcical train in motion. Even though the hosts are never seen, their friends freely indulge in gossip-mongering, assumptions, mistaken identities and lots of exaggerated physical humour.
Since the well-connected hosts cannot afford a scandal of a suicide, Suhas(Ritwik Verma) and Kavya( Ekta Brahmkshatri ) design an elaborate cover-up, which gets more creative and implausible with the next guest’s arrival. This inevitably leads to cross communications with fast-paced, overlapping, witty dialogues sometimes making it hard to place the speaker and their context, although the jokes came through.
During the evening, the aspirations and idiosyncrasies of the guests are revealed; strained relationships exposed, even as the humour escalates. The stiff neckedsufferer complains about the car accident; a back spasm-contorted guest cooks dinner; confused almost deaf friend mishears everything; the same Dr. Dudley is consulted for all ailments; the pompous aspiring politician takes himself too seriously and ignores his gorgeous wife, who pays back with shameless flirtations.
The guests, who are eventually in the know, keep up the charade for the policemen who arrive to investigate Suhas’s car accident, and learn about the gunshot unwittingly blurted out by the aspiring politician, Nick!
The second wave of mayhem ensues at the revelation, and further outrageous lies emerge, as to the reason for the gunshots. With the cop’s incessant demand to meet the never-seen host, one of the unfortunate guests, Suhas is chosen to impersonateChakra. After more confusion, outbursts, tiffs and makeups, Suhas makes a dramatic entry descending the stairs in a dressing gown and slippers.
All wait with bated breath as he passionately narrates a story of his accidental shooting and Meera getting trapped in the basement thus is nowhere in sight. The guests revel in their ingenuity as the cops buy the story and leave. They begin to troop upstairs to get the real story from Chakra, when a banging from the basement and Meera’s call for help are heard, leaving everyone frozen in mid-step!
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