May beginnings.

My review (this is the edited version) of “An Evening with Anton Chekhov” that appeared in The Hindu on May 3. Now, to find the other reviews I’ve done and post them here. This is hoping I’m more regular with my blog.

Sachin Gurjale, "A Reluctant Tragic Hero"

“Swan Song”, a one-act play, is perhaps one of Chekhov’s many strokes of genius, but as his first play it seems to surpass much of his other work. A deft, neat script that doesn’t for a moment contain itself within the physical confines of the theatre, “Swan Song” tells us a little about old age, an actor’s conflict with his art, and the passing of things. A widely performed play, it was one of three Chekhov’s one-act plays performed in Toto Funds the Arts’ and Rafiki’s “An Evening with Anton Chekhov” directed by Anmol Vellani.

The protagonist, Vasili Svietlovidoff, a 68-year-old comedian, was played by Jagadish Raja, who staggered through a dim corridor of light, in a shrunken clown’s costume with a candle in his hand. Raja’s performance was nuanced and his body compellingly conveyed the unsteadiness of his drunk demeanor, of his rundown self.

Apart from being inaudible in certain parts of his speech — certainly a drawback, Raja told the story of Svietlovidoff, making us believe him.

The performance, for the most part, also demanded the unquestioning attention of the audience, if they wanted to follow a trajectory that meandered between nostalgia, despair and fleeting hope — a performance both the actor and director had fine-tuned. “The Harmfulness of Tobacco”, performed by Ashish D’Abreo, was one of the most consistent performances of the evening that held itself most assuredly through its length. The short play is about a severely henpecked husband, who is forced into delivering a lecture about the ills of tobacco at a ladies club, and instead ends up recounting the many tragedies of his own life.

This play, less intense than the first and more obviously comical, was written by Chekhov in six drafts. The performance by D’Abreo attempted to strike a balance between the internal and the external influences that lent him the personality of a meek husband, waiting to deliver his own unrehearsed monologue. In his withholding and moments of seeming-abandon, the script was mostly squeezed out of its potential, with the actor delivering a straight, simple performance.

But perhaps, “A Reluctant, Tragic Hero” was more inventive than the rest, considering the strength of the script itself — a stretched out “the poor husband” joke that has for long burdened cinema and television soaps.

Sachin Gurjale, who played the part with earnestness made the audience part of the play. With the house lights on, and a sense that we were part of the storytelling, the play was comic-tragic in the moments it played itself out.

In that sense it did not become anything else, and mostly highlighted Gurjale’s abilities as an actor.

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