Four-day Classic Tiatr shows in Margao packed to capacity

Team Herald

MARGAO: Old is Gold was proven at the four-day classic tiatr festival as all four shows saw the Pai Tiatrist auditorium at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao packed to capacity. In fact a large number of people were seen standing or sitting on the steps for Ekuch Rosto and the popularity of that tiatr was evident when the audience sang the songs along with the artistes on stage.

The festival organised by the 125th Anniversary of Tiatr Celebration Committee constituted by the government along with Tiatr Academy Goa in collaboration with Ravindra Bhavan, Margao was truly a treat to tiatr lovers and each of the four troupes that presented the classic tiatrs were paid Rs 20,000 as production cost and Rs 40,000 for the performances held at Vasco, Panjim, Curchorem and Margao.

The four classic tiatrs were Ghorabo by Nelson Alfonso that was first released in 1969, Prem Kumar’s Jivit Ek Sopon, M Boyer’s Ekuch Rosto and Remmie Colaco’s Ghorachem Sukh which were all released in the 70s.

Although written in the late 60s and 70s, the scripts of all four tiatrs were relevant and pertinent even to present times. The comedy was rib tickling without resorting to double meanings or sexual innuendos. And amongst the four, Tomazinho Cardoso and his Kala Mogi Candolim stole a march over the others with their presentation of Ekuch Rosto.

Although Irene Cardoso and Pradip Naik were very good as the landlord and his bigoted wife Shalli, one did miss actors Shalini Mardolkar and Premanand Sangodkar who essayed these roles in the original. The other actors left much to be desired and Rita Rose’s characterisation of the foreign daughter-in-law in the original was miles ahead of Selza Lopes. The comedy acts of Jacinto Vaz in the original were also sorely missed.

The stage setting was extremely well done to depict the landlord’s posh house and the other half to show the humble abode of the mundkar. The light effects enhanced this division of the stage. In fact Tomazinho was the only one to effectively use the light effects.

The songs in between the acts were truly entertaining and Sucorro de Santa Cruz to some extent did imitate Alfred Rose’s style of singing. Shaikh Amir very successfully imitated M Boyer’s walk by cutting the figure 8 on stage. However, his attempt to imitate M Boyer’s gruff voice was a tad overdone.

Ghorabo directed by Michael Gracias relied upon the script used for the second release in the 80s and had old songs in between the acts of the tiatrs. However, one could not help but feel that the script was re-touched as there were quite a few modern day terms and dialects in Hindi used.

Although the whole tiatr was based in the house, the backdrop had big gaps on either side as the director failed to use the props and light effects effectively. Michael Gracias opined that this exercise of staging classic tiatrs should continue and was happy that two of his artistes were called back on stage for an encore.

Ghorchem Sukh directed by William Fernandes had the new actors doing a pretty good job. The tiatr had some good cantos, including one sung by six persons and another by seven characters which speaks volumes of Remmie Colaco who had written them. 

There was a mixture of good and the not so good amongst the artistes singing the songs between the acts. While one was called for an encore as he was truly entertaining, there were some whose screaming was gyrating to the ear.

The whole tiatr was based in a house and hence there was only one stage setting that was quite well done to show the three rooms used by the married couples and one portion used by the father and his unmarried son and daughter.

Jivit ek Sopon directed by Agnelo de Borim failed to live up to the expectations as it left much to be desired and though the cast valiantly tried to live their roles, they were let down by loose direction.

The stage was also poorly used and the lights were mismanaged to such an extent that characters could be seen walking off the stage after finishing their part. The two parts of the stage propped to represent the house in Goa and footpath in Mumbai were not distinctly covered by the lights and ended up being seen throughout the tiatr.

The songs in between the acts were a good selection of the oldies that brought very pleasant memories. Similarly the use of video clips to depict some scenes was a good effort to mix the old with the modern to carry the story forward.