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Innovative effort
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The French play The Hunchback of Notre Dame staged by Sparsh was an instant hit with the audience
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ODE TO A CLASSIC Scenes from the unforgettable tragic love story based in 15th Century Paris
Neither the number of filled seats, nor the passes sold is a yardstick to measure the success of a play. In the era of cell phone cameras and videos, the number of clicks the actors get for their histrionics has become the new benchmark. Going by the bulk of Nokia freeze frames the pretty Esmerelda got as she cried out in agony, the one-hour play The Hunchback of Notre Dame, staged by theatre group Sparsh, has certainly passed muster.
Sparsh enacted Victor Hugo's classic on Friday evening at Alliance Française of Hyderabad, West Marredpally, to an audience that is starved of French literature. The revised version, written by Supriya Karunakaran, is the story of the hideously deformed Quasimodo, better known as the bellringer hunchback of Notre Dame's cathedral, who falls in love with the sensational-looking gypsy girl Esmerelda. The hunchback has to be content with the motherly affection and kindness that the gypsy shows and he reciprocates it by trying to save her from death for a crime she has not committed. Meanwhile, Esmerelda has a tough time warding off the overtures of an evil man, Judge Frollo.
Hugo's play has always managed to catch the fancy of creative bees. From Walt Disney animated pictures to our local theatre groups, everyone tries to do justice to this unforgettable tragic love story. Sparsh's attempt to recreate the 15th Century Paris with Petromax lights was amusing and innovative. So was the concealed windowsill that served as a landing for the evil suicidal judge Frollo. A tall statue of Mother Mary made up for the cathedral and soprano music completed the frame. Esmerelda (played by Vivek Trivedi) looked more like a gorgeous princess than a vagabond gypsy in her white chiffon finery. No stringy hair, no tassels or beads that we so associate with gypsy mistress. Perhaps her body language could have been less refined to bring about the community's lifestyle. But her defined expressions and throaty voice reimburses those little shortcomings. The hunchback (by Mohammed Asim) was pretty much what we expect — a beautiful mind in a beastly frame. The evil Claude Frollo (Nikhil Seshadri), however, could have spent more time facing the crowds. Sparsh staged Mangal Pandey in June, much before Aamir Khan's celluloid version by the same name hit the screens. This time around too, the theatre group can foresee that the issue that is all set to rock the country is female foeticide. That is the theme of Sparsh's next play. Watch out for them again in mid-November.
MANJU LATHA KALANIDHI
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