Mumbai theatre seemed to be the most badly hit during the pandemic. So, the invitation to review The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) latest offering was a breath of fresh air. The play is in association with Akvarious Productions presents, ‘A Small Family Business’. Written by Alan Ayckbourn and directed by Adhaar Khurana, the play is a twisted comedy based on a life of an honest man, Samson Sequeira, and his not-so-honest family.
A
brief synopsis:
The play depicts the life of Samson Sequeira, a misfit—a man of principle in a corrupt world. A mild-mannered Goan Christian married into a boisterous Punjabi business family in Delhi. Samson’s father-in-law decides to entrust the family business to him. Moments after he takes on the mantle, Samson is approached by a private investigator armed with some compromising information. And this is only the beginning of his troubles.
Star Cast of the play:
Digvijay
Savant, Lucky Vakharia, Vikash Khurana, Preetika Chawla, Abhishek Saha, Vrinda
Kacker, Keith Sequeira, Kalliroi Tziafeta, Lisha Bajaj, Kashin Shetty, Tanushri
Jain, Tahira Nath, Jeh Alexander & Sarthak Kakar.
Read the book – Mumbai’s
Top 10 Theatre Plays
Script
review:
The play is re-written and adapted by writer Akarsh Khurana. Although the original play written by Alan Ayckbourn has won appreciation, this one falls flat on its face. Somehow, Akarsh Khurana has failed to evoke the laughs from the audiences. The fleshing out of the 13 ensemble characters takes too long. The punches are hardly anything that make the evening interesting.
The
theatre audiences look for two things which entices them to visit a theatre auditorium
– it’s either the theatrical histrionics or an out-and-out entertainer. This one
has neither of them. The first twenty minutes are pure-boredom. The punches are
humour sets in a bit post the interval, but the complete package of an entertainer
loaded with a message is lacking.
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Production
values:
An
impressive set, immaculate and effectively utilised. However, there were
instances where the lighting played hooky in the initial few minutes.
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Direction
review:
Director
Adhaar Khurana has skilfully managed the ensemble cast. The split-second timing
of the scene change, the fine nuances added to each character’s mannerisms are
note-worthy.
However,
the nail in the coffin was the scene once the play is over. The actors did take
a bow to the audience, but no announcements about the credits for the actors or
the play were given. We have seen plays having multiple shows on the same day
but always the final shot is given perfectly with smiling faces. Seems quite
amateurish that such a glorious moment is ignored or side-lined.
Every actor has performed to the best of their abilities and in lieu of the characterization for the role they play. Two characters which added the extra punch to their roles were the actors who played ‘Bindu Rampal’ and of course ‘Anita’. The manner in which these actors bloomed and showed their true potential is exemplary.
The
script is always considered to be the KING. This play surely falls flat thanks
to a weak script that failed to entertain.
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