Akvarious Productions presented Some Times as the penultimate play in the Hindu Metro Plus Theatre Festival last night. Some Times spans over three days in the life of Paramjit Singh, played effectively by the director of the play, Adhaar Khurana, a young Punjabi twenty-something, living with his parents in Mumbai.
Akvarious Production made very effective use of a barely-there set, transitioning with ease from Paramjit’s living room to a cafe to an office to even an auto-rickshaw, with the aid of lighting and music. While the shadowy lighting did serve to enhance the dark humour of the play, visibility of the actors’ faces was a bit of an issue.
What really worked for me about the play was the manner in which it portrayed the dual life of the urban Indian youth trying to juggle two worlds that seem to have so little in common with each other. The drinking scenes with Paramjit’s friends or his coffee dates with his girlfriend were written and executed wonderfully, they felt natural and ever so familiar. The actors who play Paramjit’s parents and his girlfriend fit their roles perfectly. I would never have guessed that the three very different parts of the annoying colleague Balaji, the drunk auto-driver and the pretentious Sufi musician were all played by a single actor, Saarang Sathaye.
What didn’t appeal to me about the play were the little explanatory Post-It notes it kept pinning onto itself. The scene with Paramjit stumbling about the stage with flashy psychedelic lights felt very forced. The audience really didn’t need that to understand that he was stoned, Adhaar’s acting outside of this scene conveyed the fact clearly enough. I also really wish the final monologue had been cut. It took away from what was otherwise a nuanced take on the life of a man who treats the people who love him with a cavalier disregard, who constantly makes questionable decisions, but somehow feels surprised and persecuted when things don’t go his way. In attempting to wrap up and explain the story as they saw it, writers Adhir Bhat and Bobby Nagra closed off avenues of thought that the play had until then sparked off in my mind.
An interesting thing about the play was that it drew heavily from the popular television series Mad Men. The scene with Paramjit showing up with a raging hangover to an important presentation, taking over from his bumbling colleagues to nail an unconventional, frenzied pitch is all too familiar to anyone who even superficially follows the show. In acknowledgement of this fact, as a dramatic footnote of sorts, the clients are named Mr Cooper and Ms. Sterling. I wonder if Mad Men influences are something we are likely to often spot in the future.
Some Times is an engaging, layered play, supported by skilled acting and a great set, let down by a couple of narrative contrivances that took away more than they added.
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