More plays...

Been watching a lot of plays these days. Have watched 4 in the past two weeks and all of them have been at Rangashankara. Going for one today also, anyway here are the quick reviews of the ones till now...

Love Letters: This was performed by the troupe Evam and was a touching story about relationship between a man and woman told through letters, spanning about 40 years. The story starts when these two people are just kids and in school. Then it meanders through their lives in which somehow circumstances always keeps them apart. Through letters their whole life is told right until the end...which I won't tell here how it is. The acting was really good. People were saying that this play is the same as 'Tumhari Amrita' but I haven't seen 'Tumhari Amrita' so don't know for sure.

The Odd Couple: Again staged by the Evam troupe, this was a hilarious play about friends. The story is about a really weak and uptight just divorced man who comes to live with his friend who is also divorced. The other guy is very carefree and 'bindas' whereas the just divorced guy kind of the opposite. Surrounding them are another 3 friends. This play was a real laugh riot that I thoroughly enjoyed. Especially the part where they think the divorced guy is going to the bathroom and the rest think he will commit suicide in there which prompts one of them to callously say "What do you think he'll brush himself to death in there!" :D

Yayati: This play was based on the Girish Karnad's adapted screenplay about king Yayati. A good play with decent acting but definitely had flaws. It felt really stretched at various points but was still good. The story is about a king who is drunk on his youth and power and makes all the wrong choices. When only his son Puru who is considered to be a weakling comes through to take off Yayati's curse does he realize how wrong his choices have been and then he starts off to set things right.

The Anklet: The adaptation of a popular mythical story called 'Silappadigaram'. I didn't enjoy the play much at all because it was very stretched. There were parts where I felt like screaming 'get on with it!' Good acting though and good setup but overall the screenplay was just too slow and long. The climax was especially slow and painful. Definitely a flawed play that can improve quite a bit.