I went to watch Samahaara’s ‘Unlucky-An Evening with Samuel Beckett’ with much trepidation. You see, my last experience with watching Beckett in Hyderabad was not so rosy. I ended up with a headache, some of the audience members left cursing under their breath and I felt like a (insert bad word) as I HAD to sit through it for reasons we will not go into here. So I decided to catch a glimpse of the rehearsal. It usually tires me, watching these rehearsals. They are repitive, obviously, and I feel tired FOR the actors. I cannot keep up, in this old age. But this time I had to watch the run before the show, and being of utmost importance, I was able to. Stop sneering.
Alright, so I watched the rehearsal and couldn’t make head of tail of it. One of the actors got into a gunny bag. The director, oh the director. Wait let me tell you. Stu Dennison was imported from London as he has worked in theatre all over Europe and is awfully clever and we like to work with people like this. So Stu was sitting there, looking serious and shaggy-pre-haircut days. Of course, everyone knows that’s the mark of a good director-lots of shaggy hair. But I still wasn’t convinced. I wondered if I might skip just this once, citing a headache or a fever before I really get one. Long story short, I couldn’t. And boy am I glad I couldn’t get out of this one.
For my thoughts, read on. The best thing about the play was the director did not seem to think, like many others, that Hydis are dumb. Just the opposite, he gave them Beckett, straight. Absurd, seemingly senseless and acts without words. Just the listlessness of life, captured on stage. A second stage was set up diagonally opposite the main stage and the audience actually had to shift their chairs to watch one of the short plays. Three women keep shifting in three chairs, a sort of musical chairs and whisper to each other. It’s like, musical chairs with bickering and gossip. But no emotion. Again, a continua of the humdrum of life. Ask another random audience member, they will interpret this completely differently. And that’s what happened with the discussion at the end. Everyone had their own thoughts and theories. Isn’t that what theatre or any art for that matter, all about? It’s your perspective about a single dot. Is that a zero? Is that a point? Is it a hole in the wall? I don’t know, you tell me. This is the beauty of modernity. This is the beauty of Beckett. This is why we needed plays like these, for Hydis to appreciate what they are capable of appreciating and to discuss and debate in the end.
Director Stu Denison
Produced by Rathna Shekar Reddy
I would like to see this play again, and I’m sure I will understand this differently this time. Thank the Lord, I still like Beckett and no headache either. A good director and actors is all it takes. And a risk-taking producer. Thanks Stu. And Beckett, you can stop turning in your grave (after the previous errrm you know…). RIP.