The curtains came up for Kala Academy’s 49th Tiatr ‘A’ Group Competition 2023-24 with
the staging of Tomazinho Cardozo’s tiatr ‘I Love Goa’ presented by Kala Mogi, Candolim.
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The story revolves around a widow Margareth (Irene Cardozo), whose only son Melwin (Shivanand Naik), daughter-in-law Celia (Valentine Sequeira) and grandson Ben (Ayaan Naik) have migrated to England.
There’s caretaker Tet’tu (Christopher Menezes) and maid Betty (Flora Pereira) to take care of all the needs of Margareth. Tet’tu looks after all the ancestral properties and Betty handles the household chores.
Builder Rokson (Anthony Carvalho) steps in in order to buy the properties of Margareth and Tet’tu acts as a mediator, seeking a share after the deal. But Margareth is unwilling to part with the ancestral properties of her deceased husband.
Meanwhile, Melwin returns to Goa along with his wife and son.
Ben is happy to meet his grandmother after ages. Melwin interacts with the builder in order to finalize the sale
of properties.
Realising that his mom is not willing to part with the properties, Melwin along with his wife tries to convince her that they would like to take her along to England. Finally,
with a heavy heart, Margareth parts with the papers. But who wins at the end and how?
Tomazinho Cardozo’s tiatr ‘I Love Goa’ throws light on the current prevailing grim situation in Goa. He has tactfully highlighted the issue of Goans migrating abroad by selling their ancestral properties and the
land grabbing tactics that follow
back in Goa.
The director has tried to create social awareness regarding blunt sale of ancestral properties by migrating Goans for greed of money. With the existing ancestral properties much can be done to fend for one’s family, apart from amassing wealth only when the remaining land is put to proper use. The legalities of ancestral properties after the demise of the head of the family have also been brought out in the concluding scene, thus serving as an eye-opener to all.
Irene Cardozo has played her role with ease. She has been ably supported by Shivanand and Valentine as spouses. Anthony looks comfortable as the builder. Francis Pereira and Tomazinho Cardozo make minor entries as friend and lawyer, respectively. But child artiste Ayaan Naik steals the show by his articulation and gestures.
Ayaan’s fine and convincing performance promises a bright future on the tiatr stage to the new entrant.
For some lighter moments, Christopher and Flora were entertaining and they carried a good dosage of laughter pills under their sleeves.
In the category of songs, the opening was a choral by seven singers, followed by solos, duets, duo, trio and quartet. All the renditions on stage were good, with some messages to carry home. Maisy de Sousa won the hearts of the audience by rendering a comedy solo ‘A B C’. Nolvert Cota and his musical team provided good live music to all the songs, while Sunny Rawool handled the background music.
The stage sets were taken care of by Anthony Fernandes, while Dnyaneshwar Morajkar worked upon the lights.
Despite bringing to the notice of the concerned authorities regards the faulty sound and lights system and the inspection carried out thereafter, nothing has been rectified. And so its additional burden on those participating in the ongoing competition.
