PARTY: Elkunchwar, touring till 22 October.
Touring.
PARTY: Mahesh Elkunchwar.
Lakeside Arts Centre: Tkts 0115 846 7777 www.lakesidearts.org.uk
Touring till 22 October. No details available.
Runs: 1h 25m: no interval.
Review: Alan Geary: 16 October 2008.
An oddly Chekhovian play from Calcutta-based Neev Theatre Group. It’s splendid.
A middle-aged socialite, Indira Sinha, hosts a party of the glitterati to honour and lionise Dibakar Banerjee, a novelist. By its end the psychological cupboards of hostess and guests have been laid bare, and with violent consequences.
Perhaps by way of a clue of what’s to come - this isn’t a straightforward production - before the action we get a disembodied rendition of some of Auden’s Stop All the Clocks. And later on The Blue Danube Waltz is played as background sound.
There’s something oddly Chekhovian about this seventies play - it’s by Mahesh Elkunchwar - from Calcutta-based Neev Theatre Group. To the English theatre-goer it’s refreshingly formal in the way that pre-war plays often were. And it’s utterly unlike the kind of east synthesises with west fare produced by too many British-Asian companies.
All the actors stand up straight and look striking and dignified. The dialogue, most of it in English but some not, is beautifully articulated. As they speak the actresses sometimes semi-declaim to the audience; but there’s nothing ham about it.
In one scene Indira and Banerjee even go into separate, spotlighted, soliloquies during their conversation.
There’s no weakness anywhere in the acting. Renu Roy (Indira) is especially moving, and Udita Chakraborty, who also directs, is outstanding as Malina, who gave up a mediocre career in the theatre for a man who, it turns out, never loved her. She’s now a drinker with fading looks. Indira’s sympathetic confidant, The Doctor, is played in a perfectly measured performance by Pradip Mitra.
Indira Sinha: Renu Roy.
Doctor: Pradip Mitra.
Sonal: Meghna Mukerjee.
Dibakar Banerjee: Ashoke Viswanathan.
Malini: Udita Chakraborty.
Vivek: Dhruv Mookerji.
Chopra: Surjya Kar.
Vrinda: Nivedita Bhattacharjee.
Director: Udita Chakraborty.
Music and Sarod: B S Dasgupta.
Playback: Malika Pukhraj and Amrita Roy.
2008-10-17 19:48:15