My first account of a Stage Play
My visits to theatres so far for watch movies could be counted on fingers. I was never fond of watching movies in the theatre and the idea of watching a stage play hardly crossed my mind. The very first notion about stage play was seeded in my mind since school when we had to read the works of Shakespeare: As you like it, Macbeth. I maintained distance from these novels because of the Shakespearean English used in the acts. It used to scare the bejesus out of me 😥.
As I started watching sitcoms — in F.R.I.E.N.D.S, I often witnessed that the plays in which Joey acted were sparsely crowded. So, I developed a notion that Stage Plays are lacklustre and appeals to a specific set of audiences the majority of which are either grey-haired or are students of literature.
Owing to this assumption I never got motivated enough to go and watch plays, not even the ones in which one of my closest school friend performed🥲. He has been into professional theatre for over 8 years and have acted/ directed/written several plays. But I could never make it to any of his acts either due to lack of time or lack of motivation.
Years went by and he moved to pursue his career parking his passion aside. A few days back he shared details of a new play which was co-written and co-directed by him — his tryst with his passion after 3 long years — and asked me to get a pass and give it a watch. I instantly bought the tickets along with a colleague of mine and was filled with doubts as neither of us had ever been to a stage play 🤔. We were skeptical about the engagement and even decided that if it gets boring we will come out of the theatre and hang out in the nearest mall 😅. The sort of setting of the play we had in mind is a small theatre with few audience sitting here and there — who in this era of OTT will watch a play on a Sunday evening. But to our utter surprise, it was almost a full house. We tip-toed in during the epilogue of a previous play. At around 7:30 PM the play written by my friend began, which was named FINDING FUNNY. Initially the act seemed to be out of sync to its title but it made sense as the plot unfold.
It started with a Clown named Funny reminising his glorious past but now people despise him and don’t find him funny. The owner of the circus, Mr Kutti even fired him from his job and then in a monologue he drinks, gets maudlin and tells about his mother, who was a celebrated clown. He shares the event that toppled his life. He is no longer funny and hence he goes on a journey to find what is fun for today’s audiences. His journey starts from the cafetaria of a corporate office and ends in a riot.
The play illustrates several anecdotes of eve-teasing, boastful political speeches, Lynching etc which seems funny to passersby. The acts were ingeniously woven with the title of the play and will keep you engaged throughout.
The protagonist often ask the Audience, “Was it FUNNY?”
The play ends leaving a lump in my throat and a surprising revelation when FUNNY was exclaimed to be a filler. It shows a harsh fact about life that you only remain valuable to someone as long as you have something to offer them and also the main message of the play, is conveyed very well, which is only for you to watch it and find out. 😉
The play touched me and It has definetly changed my notion about stage plays. I would recommend my readers to get over Netflix and other OTTs and walk to your nearest theatre to watch a play. 😎😎 It was more grasping than watching a movie as I could connect more with the people performing and the story being portrayed. The actors were phenomenal and the script was not only well written but also wonderfully executed. 👏👏👏
If you wish to watch this play do drop an email to dasdibyo@gmail.com for the tickets
