Watched the Action!

Pawan Kumar in Sleuth

What is a writer's world like? Is it filled with fairies and spiders, little black witches… or fictitious detectives? What does it take to commit a perfect crime? These are some of the many questions that churn in the head when one sees the poster of 'Sleuth'.

Sleuth a play written by Anthony Shaffer and directed by Pawan Kumar was staged June 7th to 12th, 2005 at RangaShankara for a record 18 shows in 6 days. The cast consisted of Kishore Acharya, Pawan Kumar, Rohit Gupta, Ashish Rajan and Bruce.

The play started with Nags (Pawan Kumar) entering the stage as an old writer who lives wrapped up in his own world with imaginary friends and a young obnoxious wife who is having an affair with… Stop. I am not supposed to tell you the story. You are supposed to watch it.

Unlike other plays previously staged in Bangalore, this one definitely had an edge. It took some time to grasp the feel of the play, but later the audience was engrossed, laughing, sighing and lapping up every dialogue, while Nags, continued to provoke and incite Kumar with his outrageous and pompous dialogues.

Intermission was not really an intermission. The audience settled down with a cup of coffee to speculate if Anil was really dead? Did Nags really kill Anil? Etc. Somewhere towards the 3/4th of the play the plot was lost in translation and revived in the last ten minutes. The lifeless scenes with the detective could have been made interesting.

The play was riveting and Pawan Kumar's transformation after his Final Rehearsal, into an old man coordinated with Kishore Acharya who played both Kumar and the detective was brilliant. .

The play ended with a diabolical bang; leaving us wanting to know more about what happens next. Perfect sets (one of the costliest so far), apt lighting, and clarity in direction makes this play a treat even though the audience was sparse.

(Source: Vijay Times, BVT 4.)

Copyright © 2005 Puja Goyal