Cauldron of ideas, concepts and laughter

Modern India is a cauldron of issues, so inter-twined that none can segregate one from the other. Each is distinct and yet a part of the whole - a mish-mash of thoughts, concepts and ideologies.

Just what the Lady Sri Ram College’s annual theatre production attempted to stage through Butter and Mashed Banana.

A hilarious take on several issues such as family, politics, freedom of speech and celebrity, it has been written by Bangalore-based playwright, Ajay Krishnan and directed by Neel Chaudhri. The play was originally presented in 2005 and has been performed several times in various cities. However, even though Butter and Mashed Banana is critically acclaimed in the genre of new Indian writing in theatre, it was the first time that this play was staged in Delhi. 

The audience was in splits at almost every dialogue that traced the life of an individual - born to a Leftist mother and a right-wing father. He, however, grows up to become a writer and later takes up politics only to realise eventually that there is nothing called as ‘freedom of speech.’

But the most comic scene was the hilarious projection of Censor Board which laid emphasis on editing scenes which showed “nuzzling of cleavage” and objected to words such as “sexy” and dance steps such as “pelvic thrust.” 

The ideology that “If it is art, it is not obscene and if it is obscene then it is not art,” is also mocked by the play. However, what stood apart was the acting of the Censor Board which comprised three funny characters from different Indian regions. Raksha Thakur, a first year student of English Honours, played the character of a nymphomaniac board member and was loved by all for her gimmicks. “I love off beat roles and was extremely happy to play such a character.” She admits to having “no idea of what the Censor Board is” but agrees, “We tried to project stereotypes of hypocrites because people often preach the opposite of what they practice.”

Ajay was overjoyed when Neel asked for his script. He said, “The original performance included only three male actors whereas when Neel told me that he plans to direct it with 16 girls on board, I was completely thrilled because even though the play has been widely acclaimed, the script has never been experimented with!”

Not only did Neel take up the challenge of working with a huge cast but also created a duplicate audience which comprised the actors who were seated facing the audience and thus became second viewers!

The girls who played three stages of life of the protagonist or even those who were ‘extras’ and danced with abandon, did a fabulous job of their performances. Kavya Trehan’s poses to represent the cover page of a book had the audience in splits. She later confessed: “I could not stop myself from smiling when the audience laughed but camouflaged it.”