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The scene stealers
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The Coimbatore Book Club Theatre Group proved it did not need out-of-towners to stage entertaining English drama. They were perfectly capable of doing it themselves
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Photos: K. Ananthan
Odd couplesFrom Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite
The average age of the organizers, participants, volunteers and a sizeable chunk of the audience must have touched giddy heights at the Nani Palkhivala auditorium that evening. And, all one could feel was envy and a fervent hope that one would have half the pizzazz, style and joie de vivre at that age.
Old wine
From the 70s couple Minoo and Bulbul Vania cheerfully dispensing the tickets downstairs, to Sagar and Sashi Gulati warmly welcoming guests, to the elegantly eighty plus Dinoo Hataria giving inspiration to everyone around her, and the 90 plus Air Marshal Victor Srihari’s welcome address, the ‘seniors’ completely stole the show. And what a show it was!
The Coimbatore Book Club’s Theatre Group put up Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite and Coimbatoreans please sit up and take note. The actors, director, producers, light men, costume designers were from the city. No imported talent, all home grown and our very own.
One was immediately swamped by the excitement and ambience. A full house, laughter, chatter and Blue Danube playing in the background. The Book Club members, young and old, ushered in guests, seated them and distributed programmes. Air Vice Marshal Srihari opened the proceedings with a short introduction to the Coimbatore Book Club, its drama activities, and about Dinoo Hataria whom he described as the ‘living force’ behind the theatre group. Sashi Gulati who directed the play and made it all happen shared the behind-the-scenes experience of bringing the play to us that evening. From her we learnt how the cast members, unstintingly gave of their time and turned up day in and day out for rehearsals, and she thanked all the moms dads, spouses and kids in the audience who had made that possible. Sashi thanked the generous patrons without whom the production would not have been possible. She said her friends and her immense faith in god had brought the evening to fruition.
Stale mates
About Plaza Suite, it was the typical light-hearted affair Neil Simon is so famous for. And, the two plays that made it up had elements in it that most of the married audience present would identify with! It was a slice of life of middle aged couples who were “at the end of something, rather than the beginning of anything”. In Visitor from Mamroneck a middle-aged woman tries to bring the pep back into her marriage, but that bubbly has lost its bling, she discovers.
When her husband refuses Martini and she coquettishly reminds him that there was a time it made him ‘sexy’, he snaps back that now ‘it just made him flabby’. Watching the inevitability of a marriage gone stale was funny and at times quite poignant.
Happy ending
The second play Visitor from Forest Hillswas very funny too. A middle aged couple are faced with some unpalatable truths about themselves when their daughter refuses to come out of the bathroom just minutes before her wedding. No amount of coaxing, cajoling or threatening seem to work. The young bride tells her parents that she is terrified that she will become like them. “She is having second thoughts”, says the mother, and her husband is furious, “Second thoughts? I have spent 8,000 dollars for her first thoughts!” he shouts.
Amidst the father’s rising irritation at all the money he has spent on the wedding going down the drain, and the mother’s preoccupation with her laddered stockings, and the frequent blame game the two engage in, it becomes apparent that they have not really been that great as parents or as husband and wife! Anyway, all ends on a happy note…
Kudos to the Coimbatore Book Club Theatre Group for a thoroughly enjoyable evening. The sets were perfect, as were the costumes, sound, music and lights.
No one forgot their lines, the timing was near perfect, punch lines were well delivered, and, of course it was a joy to hear ‘English as she was spoke…’.
Join in
The Coimbatore Book Club Theatre Group has been going all out to popularize English drama activities in the cities through workshops, plays, play reading and so on, and it invites anyone who is interested in the same to sign up. Those interested may call: 0422-2457202/98430-42040/98430-76705/.
Age has nothing to do with it!
PANKAJA SRINIVASAN
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
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Kochi
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