A day in the life of LIFE

For the theatrically and linguistically challenged, Evam is a theatre group based out of Chennai and Ekamevam in Sanskrit means “One and Only”.

Okies. Here we go. The entire day today had yours truly enduring the pain induced by the nth root canal treatment that I’ve been undergoing (My Maker didn’t quite get my dentistry right, but nonetheless compensated with the rest..). After an overdose of the nauseating odor of Powdered Calcium (which once happened to be my tooth), Cement, Clove Oil, Anesthesia and Rubber (gloves), I decided that attending a comedy play would do good to both my pot holed jaws and my tensed soul.

Off I went to get my day’s dose of free laughter – courtesy the Bengaluru Habba’s theatrical show (which I’d incidentally attended last year as well). This time around it was the celebrated Evam, from Namma Chennai that was to present “the original spoof” of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare – the T 20 version.

The subject had me all excited. For a person who deeply appreciated his Non- Detail Text Book of class 12, Hamlet was one of those “loooooong” plays that did not form part of the syllabus. So, as I do before all plays that I attend – I got a de-brief of the plot of the original from “your friendly neighborhood Wikipedia” where names such as Ophelia seemed very familiar. Even as I sipped on some chilled apple juice – I navigated through the world wide web and had just about 5 minutes to read a two line synopsis of the play. Which I later realized was good enough.

The Chowdiah Memorial Hall – where the play was to be staged, has a special significance, for this is where I watched my first play, “Snow White” way back in class 1.

The show began with a snapshot of Evam and their work, not to mention the commemoration of over 200 performances by the group. A three person act was what it was going to be, with two of the three playing multiple roles. Owing to the fact that I am mathematically challenged, I was quite undone counting the number of roles played by the three some (the roles included those of the palace guards too – not to forget one of the members of the audience who was coaxed into playing an extempore of Ophelia!).

Even as the mood of the spoof was set by caustic comments on the Rama Sene and the Economic Slowdown, the actors with their mismatched attire and some wittily crafted dialogues (especially targeting the Shakespearean Quotient of the audience) had us guffawing away to glory.

While “unconventional” would be the best word to describe the play, within the play, within the play (those at the venue would understand that the words are not redundant), the only time where we sat silent was during the first 7 odd minutes of the second half.

The seamless role rendition that had styles from those of Rajesh Khanna to the Stiff Brit Upper Lip was indeed commendable. The one takeaway was the character of Ophelia who kept running directionless, around the stage like Jiah Khan in Ghajini.

But what I liked the most was the sequencing of the play. While what played out in the play was a T 20 version, they replayed the highlights of the play and then replayed the highlights of the played highlights and finally ended with the reverse sequencing of the entire play akin to the visuals of the song “Solace” by Enigma.

With some beautifully worded disclaimers and just the right amount of non English puns, it was a thoroughly enjoyable one. Evam indeed did justice to the spoof of “The Hamlet, the greatest work by William Shakespeare – the T 20 version”
Kudos to the entire team of , “Ekam Evam, Evam”….

P.S. – As “Luck by Chance” would have it, I incidentally bumped into two of my Class 11 buddies at the venue, which indeed was the icing on the cake....