The humourous side of chaos

Barking Dog Productions recently performed ‘Boeing Boeing’, a comedy originally written by Marc Camoletti and directed by N Rishi. Alliance Française was full of theatre enthusiasts in the mood for a good laugh, which they got in abundance during the play.

The plot was simple and yet, complicated — Bernard, a swinging bachelor living in Paris, is engaged to three beautiful stewardesses belonging to different airlines. He has a well-organised schedule of all their flights, days of the week on which each one returns and even plans the dinner menu as per each one’s taste — Italian, American or German.

But while he is a master of time management, he isn’t too big on crisis management. His ‘perfect’ life of promiscuity goes for a toss when his friend Robert comes to live with him for a few days and a super Boeing jet ruins a well-planned out weekend. As luck may have it, the three women end up in his house simultaneously, and the two men try their best to keep each one out of the other’s way without succumbing to confusions. To make it worse, their names are also similar — Gretchen, Gabriela and Gloria –— adding to the chaos. A witty cook, who finds her master’s life too taxing to keep up with, is another funny character in the play. By the end of it, Bernard’s little farce falls apart and he finds himself warming up to the idea of becoming a one-woman man.

The tables are also turned since Robert now finds himself a lover in his best friend’s ex-fiance Gretchen, though slightly tempted by the possibility of more than one at the time.  Interestingly, the play is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most performed French play throughout the world, though the English translation evidently works too. “It’s a very good play, in terms of the concept and plot as well as the casting. The situational humour is hilarious and the sharp dialogues are enjoyable,” says Arvind Menon, an audience member.

“It wasn’t too gripping when it started, but it picked up pace and became genuinely entertaining. The acting and script were quite decent and I’m glad I came for this,” adds Roshni, who attended the play.

While it comprised a small cast of just six characters, it was visible that each one had put in a lot of effort to turn this into an enjoyable watch. “For the last 50 days, we’ve been working hard on this production and to give the play the justice it deserves,” notes Varun Rajender Soian, who played the role of Robert. “The challenge was in maintaining the level of energy throughout — it’s such a good script and if even a single per cent of energy went low, the entire play would have been spoilt. Everyday, Rishi (the director) made us do lot of breathing exercises, worked on projecting our voices and other such theatre exercises. Being my first production, it’s been a fantastic experience,” he adds.