It was my wish to go and see English plays. My first visit with the theatre medium happened today…..okai I cant say I have never gone to plays…..I have gone to Tamil plays by the “ ‘Crazy’ mohan troupe”…..and well as far as English plays are concerned I have only seen them in my school….and have been regularly going to my school theatre group plays…’Chettinad players’…..other than that I have never gone to professional English plays that are staged by the various theatre groups in Chennai……coz it never worked out in a long run……and u need company to go to plays…..I make all this big plans and stuff to go to the plays and who will get tickets and stuff….and also would have bugged my friends out of their life to accompany me…(I guess my friends wont deny this…I mean the bugging thing…coz…I make it tht everyone accepts wat I say and come with me…….or else they gotta bear the annoying , irritating zany…if they aren’t gonna do wat I want them to do!!...like making them read my blog… [;)]), but in the end something or the other will come up…or you know we would be bankrupt……
The Big plan:
So I planned it out this time very carefully…really well ahead……and started bugging everyone early enough, that is a month and a half ahead, that we should all go to this play…..that is by ‘Evam’, I was part of their orkut community….and heard that they were celebrating ‘Evam 150’, that is completion of 150 plays, and you could book tickets through orkut, that was way cool to an orkut addict like me!!... (And I am getting over it people!!!....no more an addict!!...seriously believe me!!)….and you know how crazy I can become about communities……being the fact that I did large scale promotions in orkut for my 3 communities that I so proudly own in the initial stages, and then let it grow on its own….so I started replying to the threads and stuff, and they were actually brilliant in promoting it through orkut I should say…..and it did have a great response I guess…..at least from me….and I am sure there are many freaks like me out there in this planet!!...so all done…and I had convinced Dvija…my best buddy from school…..and she has agreed to come….. (a small piece of info….hopefully dvija will not chase me all my life after reading this………she is a person who is hard to make her come out with you….it never works out….she will plan everything, and at the last minute something really important or stupid will come up, which she cant avoid…..and I told if she messes up this time….she is gonna be dead meat…..!!!.)….unfortunately her cousin couldn’t come with us….as we have our internals in college next week, and she had to prepare for it…..(And well, that does mean I have internals…..but zany only sits before day of exam and studies…..and then fumble I could’ve done better in the exam…..but I still wonder how my marks turn out great, even when I am not satisfied with wat I rote in the exam…..tht is a answerless question to me till now!!). So the tickets were booked for the 3:15 show on 6th Saturday at Alliance Francoise in nungambakam….and I was way too excited for that day to come…..
The Day:
Well the day came….I had college…. (Our management is coping up the working days for the hols they gave for Christmas and New Year!!...duh!!!!!..great!..)….so what if they want to have college on Saturday well and good, I am not stopping them, but I will not turn up on Saturday….as I have my morning CWA classes till 8in the morning…..and I need to catch my interrupted sleep due to my class…from 9 to whatever time I wish!!!....so college bunked, I was nicely sleeping in my comfy bed…..and got up after a nice long warm blasting from my mom at around 10!!......and Dvijas mom called up saying she had left her cell at home….just the thing I needed…how was I supposed to contact her, as she has college (poor soul…!!)…then getting hold of her friends numbers, I called her at her break time (u know the time wen all cells pop out wen they r banned in ur college premises…;)), and well she was talking in a hushed voice……apparently she was trapped inside her campus!!....and I told her I will be opposite her college at around 1:30….
The Drive:
So then, I started at 1:15 from home, damn the Chennai traffic..the ride from mandaveli to nungambakam will just take perfect 15 minutes!!...but thanks to the traffic, I was there outside her college at 1:40, but I couldn’t find her…so I went, very decently parked my bike at ‘barista’ and as if going in, I came out….and went to the opposite of her college, and searched her…there she was….we then went to barista took the bike….I already noticed that the watchman had noticed me!!...but alas, wat could I do in the hell of traffic, and apparently wen I drove my bike out he said something about parking not allowed if u r not going in or something, but I just speeded off in a hurry, I wonder wats in store from him, the next time I go to that barista!!....now our quest as to find college road…..my friend alice tried to explain to me the route via phone…but u see, I am not that well equipped with directions, it would be right before us, but I wouldn’t know it!!...so I stopped before college road…asked the police man (my best friends they are considering the way I drive!!) where college road is?...he pointed right in fromt of us!!!...anyway so we went in…found the place…but u know it was only 2!!.....we just couldn’t barge in when the show is only at 3:15….so I just went straight wherever the road led…..took some turns, without knowing where they r going, and apparently ended up again in nungambakam high road…so I told dvija we will go to ispahani next to her college and spent some time…..wat else could we do, other than driving around hopelessly.
So went to ispahani, was going up and down…as there was no place empty in sweetchariot….then at last at 2:30 a table was empty in there, and we ordered….they have excellent service u know….u order and they give it to u in an hour or so!!!......too quick…..their service is!!!........nobody will automatically take ur order, unless u threaten the waiters that u will walk out, if he doesn’t come (which we have done many a time there!!1)….so we left that place at 2:55…….great, I told dvija that we must be there at the venue at 2:45, and we start at 2:55….perfect punctuality keepers we both are, you see!!..so well I thought I will take the ‘u turn’ which is not allowed, if there is no police man, to save time…..and was standing near the turn, and apparently dvija saw the police man, before I was about to turn, and I saw that police man staring at us!!...so without turning I went straight!! This caused us to lose some 5 minutes, so it was 3 when I took the Gemini flyover turn!!.....and such a hell of traffic….I just rushed through it just in time, escaping all signals and reached Alliance Francoise at 3:05..(whoa thts great….5 minutes in heavy traffic!!)……so then we went to the booking counters and got our tickets…..and it was soo cool…all these evam people were wearing the red hats, giving the place a joyous mood!!...
The Play:
So tickets brought, seated in the auditorium, we were all set to watch the play….it was called ‘ART By Evam’…there bottom line of the play is …’a play about you, me and our best friend’…the general introductions came, and then a boy came and was acting as if he was playing a musical instrument….and music was pouring out behind…..then I understood that this was to set up the stage….and the play started…it revolved around three characters who are friends, and one of them gets a ‘white painting with a white background and white lines’……for 200 thousand francs…and his friend is mad at him for wasting 200 grand’s for a piece of what he calls white shit…..then they consult their third friend, who has no opinions for himself….is not an authoritative figure unlike the other two….and doest bother much what the other person does as long as it makes them happy…and he cant hate anything, and people like him…and i luved this dialogue that he delivered..`If I am who I am because I am who I am,
and You are who You are because You are who You are,
then I Am who I Am and you Are who you Are.
But, on the other hand,
IF I am who I am, because You are who you are,
and You are who You are, because I am who I am,
then you Are Not who you are, and I Am Not who I am'.
.and the play revolves around how these three characters fight, and try to find what is common between them to be friends, and go to the extent of ending their 15 year long friendship….and at last they end by understanding their mistakes and trying to rebuild their friendship…..the play was set in France…..and it indeed was a serious comedy!!......an excellent piece…..and I do say a worthy way to spend 1 and half hours and have a nice laugh over the entire thing…. This play was supposed to be their first play that they staged in savera when Evam was launched…..I felt at a personal level, as I have decided to be a theatre audience today, I felt like this was their first play 3 yrs back, and I am watching it….so hopefully I will be able to watch all their plays, and I have decided to be a regular visitor to the play, as and when time permits as well as my purse permits!!....but all in all, I had a really good time in the play, and hope for more in the coming plays that I am planning to watch!!
The orkut-evam meet:
Then after the play there was the orkut-evam meet…..which was kinda so cool, that the people u see online, u get to meet them face to face and interact with the group…..and well it was an informal gathering, having a nice time with the group, getting to know each other…and how it all started the ‘Evam theatre group’…… on how Karthik and Sunil met in M.I.C.A Ahmadabad in their post graduation, and decided to start the theatre group, which was their passion rather than working for corporate monotonously, they also said that they had spoke innumerable celebrities who had asked them not to start the theatre group, as it never fetched money….but they just wanted to give a try to their passion and think about the consequences later…so they worked and each saved a lac rupees and started ‘Evam’ three years back with this very play..’ART’…..they also introduced their core management…….and basically they were trying to get feedback on their plays, and how to make the orkut Evam community more active…..with the fact that they have some 800 odd members…but only 120 to 150 are active!!....and if u ask me wat I did in the meet….come on people I guess u know me better…I never talk straight away to new people….I take time to settle…and apparently dvija is also like that….so we were just keen observers at the meet, and I just love to listen….so there I was listening to everything said and done…and everyone there was great and friendly….but I need time to get accustomed to talk to people in person….and I guess hopefully if I go to these meets anymore, I would get accustomed and share my views….not that I had any today in the meet…given to the fact everything was damn new to me….the entire theatre world was new to me……and I did not have any opinion to share…I was just getting to know how they are working…and maybe I will get a better edge about exactly what theatre is all about in the future, as I plan to go to more of these plays, then go to sathyam, and hang around there choosing which film to waste my money on…just to spend time with friends…..I guess going to a play will be a valuable hangout with friends as compared to cinemas…with of course the exception of Manirathnam films…which are a class above others!!
So all is well I had a great time….and next time I am going to go to the Evam plays in a big group packing all my friends up….I am gonna make them experience what is theatre actually, and promote this new entertainment medium to my other friends and how much fun it is will be discovered by them, like I did today
Zanychild
Driving people insane as always!
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