JOIN USThe absurdity of being picture perfect
The assumption of being a perfect human being is delusional. The tag of being a ‘perfectionist’ or a ‘perfect couple’ often undermines the reality that many of us fail to understand. What happens when parents of two children, who had an altercation, meet to devise ways to ensure their children don’t repeat this “rogue” incident? A lot of drama and a brave exposure of human eccentricities that lies dormant somewhere in between.
Mumbai-based director Nadir Khan’s ‘The God of Carnage’ was recently staged in the capital. The play is based on the popular French play of the same name. The 70-minute play unfolded a gamut of possibilities a conversation can take, provided each character has a role to play in it.
So the two children – Fredrick and Bruno have fought and the former has broken the teeth of the latter. The play opens with Bruno’s parents talking with Fredrick’s exploring the possibility of finding a middle path to help the children reconcile. It is through their conversation, the profession of each of the parent is revealed and the way they are bringing up their children.
Bruno’s parents, especially his mother, who is a writer and a concerned humanitarian believes in “culture playing a pacifying role in building a great nation”. On the other hand, Fredrick’s parents are a reflection of those families who are busy in their everyday drudgery and hardly have any room for conversation with their children.
The conversation gives an impression of their ideologies and how they perceive the world, till Fredrick’s mother gets a panic attack and she pukes on the leather couch. What unfolds from here is the misery of a father who believes “marriage is the most terrible tragedy inflicted upon you” and “children consume and fracture our lives” and the popular notion that every man likes a woman who is “beautiful and good-looking”.
Bruno’s mother, played by Shernaz Patel, is portrayed as someone who is a champion of universal peace, till she is irked by her husband’s (Sohrab Ardeshir) uncouth attitude. He is blamed for showing a callous and unsympathetic attitude towards their pet hamster that he abandons on the road. In a fit of rage, she attacks and beats him up.
On the other side, in the middle of a confrontation Fredrick’s mother throws her husband’s mobile phone in water after he refuses to part with it. The script was loaded with many one-liners that gave the audience many reasons to laugh.
But the most prominent part of this play was the way it dealt with human nature and its follies. It highlighted the way situations can manipulate our sense of reasoning and how our contrarian attitude can blindfold our outlook. But there is a way to overcome these imperfections, because not everybody is perfect.