Aamir Raza
Husain performed once 20 years ago at Kala Academy, Panjim but has been a stalwart in the field
of theatre in India. What he does hope to offer the audience in Goa is “A good
time and a good evening. Every play is different, every actor is different and
at the end of it, the audience should enjoy themselves. Whether a play, comedy
or musical, it has to be something that the audience enjoys and we hope they
enjoy themselves,” says Aamir.
Aamir Raza Husain is
here with his theatrical performance, ‘Goodness Gracious Me’, as a part of his
near four decade association of doing theatre backed by the ITC group of
hotels. In Goa too, he will be performing at ITC Grand on October 23, 2019, the
very first WelcomTheatre production in Goa.
‘Goodness Gracious
Me’ is a comedy English play on how a debt-ridden hospital spruces itself up to
impress the Minister of Health, who has planned to visit them in the hope of
funding to reclaim its past glory. This leads to a roller coaster ride of
hysteria and mayhem as the play progresses. The play was performed in
Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Delhi and will be heading to Mumbai
on Saturday, October 26, 2019.
The cast and crew
arrived in Goa with three trucks and a team of 14 people to work to set up the
stage besides the 11 cast members. “We come a few days early because you can’t
just walk into a city and do a show. These are live shows and you have to take
an outer view and a day to rehearse,” he explains.
His cast members
range from the oldest being 78 years old and youngest, 21 years old. “It’s
really a commitment and wanting to do theatre and not just that I want to come
on stage. I’m always looking at new cast but these days it is difficult,
because it is a different generation. It is the lack of ability to put in hard
work. Acting is very hard work and our job is to come on stage and do whatever
we are doing, so it appears spontaneous but it all has to be rehearsed. Comedy
is one of the most difficult forms of theatre because the timing is crucial.
Timing becomes an issue,” he says.
He adds, “Youngsters
are dealing with two problems. Commitment is lacking in a lot of them and the
second thing is that I find people don’t speak the language. Any kind of
theatre that you are doing, you need to be the master of the language you are
performing in, because it is only then that you are able to interpret and
communicate in a manner of excellence. You have to have command over the
language. Today, I find youngsters with a lazy speech. They are not taught in
school how to speak as we were taught by our teachers and professors.”
With
economic conditions, it is difficult to find sponsors for English theatre.
Also, the environment for English theatres is not very conducive,” says Aamir,
which is why he lauds the WelcomTheatre initiative.
