A team, four scenes and unforgettable evening!

It’s not often that an audience is witness to the works of several literary geniuses like Rabindranath Tagore, Jean Paul Satre and Albert Camus in a single evening. Thespian En’s collection of four significant scenes from various plays was staged on Saturday at the Alliance Francaise. It was titled JIST and ranged from Karna and Kunti to a rather infamous, Caligula. For those unfamiliar with the latter, Caligula or Gaius was a Roman Emperor, best remembered for his cruelty and sexual perversions.Many thought him to be insane, as was depicted in the play, where Caligula (Ajit Chitturi, also director of the production) is tired after a long walk. The fact that he spent his time seeking the moon, while grieving the loss of his sister (and lover), Drusilla, is compelling evidence. When warned of an impending assassination plot, the emperor simply summons the conspirator to his chambers and destroys the only tablet of evidence against him by burning it. Certainly an insight into the mind of one of Rome’s most controversial monarchs. Nekrassov, penned by Camus was quite the opposite — a light-hearted satire of a Frenchman who works at a newspaper. The man is threatened with retrenchment if he cannot come up with a political campaign idea for the paper’s anti-communist drive.The protagonist in this scene, a rather weathered-over-the-years, Sibillot (Abhinav) and his unseen editor (Arnab), who is only heard over the telephone, do a fine job of portraying boss-employee dynamics.The Tale of Karna and Kunti was well told but a bit monotonous in parts for those out of their water with basic mythology. The highlight of the evening, was definitely a portion from Keane, based on the life of a great English actor who donned several of Shakespeare’s roles, in his time. In the scene, a drunken Keane, portrayed excellently by Chitturi, is sought in his dressing room by an actress-hopeful, Anna Danby (Shireen Saadiya) who seeks to learn from him and is quite at ease with his unorthodox perspective on the art.With some clearly brilliant lines and witty humour, Keane certainly took home the prize, over his ‘classic’ stage contemporaries.