Larger than Life Images.

Introduction: Adult Comedies can work much better when the audience relates to them and find something in common.

Source: Vijay Times, LIFE pg- 3.
Copyright © 2005 Puja Goyal

Life surely gets complicated as you grow up, or … on second thoughts quite simple. But does growing up actually make you know what you want? Defining adult comedy in theatre can be quite a complicated affair. They subjects border on, Explicit language, confused Love, Relationships, Sex, Sexual Identity, Therapy, Failed job Scenes, some more Sex, Husband and wife bickering, extra- marital relationships, and then Some beer and more Sex … Bad colleagues… and amongst it all trying to figure out what life is all about and why love is not working out like it used to when we were eighteen.

The theatre audience, who are witness to adult comedy bond with these themes and share a laugh or two while mouthing the dialogues as the play progresses. Wait, Hang on… It does not mean they already know the story; it just means that they have lived through such situations and do not mind a laugh or two when they find themselves in these characters.

Anything but Love was a treat for the Bangalore audience looking for something to relate to. Staged on the on September 16th at Chowdiah Memorial Hall and directed by Vikranth Pawar, Anything but love, was a story of two people, recently divorced but maybe still very much in love. Does life give them a second chance? Do they conform? Between gay psychiatrists and second spouses will they choose to be with each other? Or will they let bygones be bygones?

The divorced couple tries to understand their relationship and find meaning in it. Sameer Soni was a character many guys could relate to amongst the audience. Mandira Bedi tried to bring out the complexities of a woman in her thirties but fell short of it. She appeared disillusioned and inflexible, and was unable to take advantage of the wit in the dialogues. In the end, Sameer's Sexual Confusion came to a conclusion when the audience found out that he is homosexual.

The problem with a play like this is that there is no scope for creativity. The dialogues were stereotype; while the concept of a psychiatrist for an Indian couple who was falling apart was new. The only thing that keeps a man committed is family pressure, and the only thing that keeps a woman trying, is hope. In the end, a frustrated Mandira gives up and leaves, while Sameer is left holding a bouquet of red roses in his hand.

Most adult comedies therefore circle around satires, political one-liners and ironies of life. This does not mean that there is nothing new to offer or that the plays would be incapacitated in front of the audience. Adult comedies work much better when the audience can relate to it and find something in common. They are larger than life images of everyday incidents. It is what one wants after a hard days work. An exaggerated image of what reality consists off...



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