Black and White - Play Review
I recently had the pleasure of watching “Black and White” a collection of 8 short plays at Rangashankara. The plays performed by Cult Entertainment included classics from Monty Python, Anton Chekhov and Rowan Atkinson.
There have been a lot of theater groups that have time and again performed some of these sketches but what set this performance apart was how differently each of the sketches were handled.
The evening started with a rendition of “The Warm Welcome” by Venky. The hilarious monologue of Satan welcoming the latest occupants of hell had the audience in splits. That was followed by “The Interview” with Animesh playing the role of the interviewee who has the interview he will never forget. Danny played the Interviewer convincingly but the evening was just starting for him as he performed in as many as three different plays.
Next was another Rowan Atkinson sketch, “The Good Loser”. Anirudh Acharya did a great job playing the role of sore loser who is forced on stage to collect an award for his co-star.
The standout plays of the evening had to be The Seduction, The Arrangement and Fatal Beatings. The Seduction, a Chekhov short play had Danny playing the role of a seducer tying to attract the affections of the wife(Rency Phililp) of his close friend (Ian). This play echoed the beauty of the abstractness of the stage as the three actors masterfully used a single chair and some spectacular body language to keep the audience bound to their seats. Danny was once again on stage for “The Audition” another of Chekhov’s masterful works about an actor seeking a role from a director that he holds in high regard. The final monologue of that play was incredibly moving, a beautiful touch of drama in an evening that was a laugh riot.
The Arrangement, another of Chekhov’s experiment with relationships, had a father taking his son on his nineteenth birthday a special place, where a father would probably never ever take his son. A funny take on coming of age, the play had some lovely moments between a innocent son(Anirudh Acharya) and reluctant father(Ajit Thandur). The lady of the street(Tina) added the sex appeal and the naughty sense of humor that provided the perfect balance to the play.
The Surgery, another of Chekhov’s works had a priest with a terrible toothache having to deal an amateur dentist’s assistant. Fatal Beatings was the final play of the evening. A Rowan Atkinson sketch about a father(Ajit Thandur) meeting the principal(Venky) of his son’s school on the topic of the apparent “inactivity” in the dead boy.
All in all Black and White was a impressive evening of laughs and a wonderful salute to the masters. One of the things that I admired about the whole event was the tickets, printed like American Dollar bills it put a smile on my face before I even entered the theater. Hope to see more from the group that calls itself Cult.
Originally published at New Sense
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