Hunt for live N-weapon triggers laugh riot

Nagpur: What happens when two clumsy workers in a nuclear facility with a brain that works more into ruining things than mending it? Well, it gives birth to a series of hilarious sequences.
The audience had the same experience while watching silent English drama ‘Live Nukes’, written and directed by Kevin Duvall and Taylor Brewerton from the United States. The drama was staged at Sai Sabhagruh as part of the 21st Bharat Rang Mahotsav’s Parallel Theatre Festival, organized by National School of Drama, New Delhi, on Wednesday.
The play was a classic example of silent comedy, brought to life by these actors without the use of props, technical sound effects and words.
The drama starts to unfold when two boorish government servants working in a nuclear facility accidentally launch a nuclear weapon into stratosphere, leading to utter chaos. The mismatched workers, portrayed by Kevin (blue) and Taylor (red), try to save the world from a certain nuclear disaster.
This takes them to places which one can find only in a person’s imagination. They pretended using props by using their hands and sound language. They created sounds of screwdrivers, lifting of machines and switching the button on.
Their search for the misfired nuclear object begins as they hustle to stop it from spreading radiation in the atmosphere. They set out to find it out. They go to decrepit bunkers, down a sketchy roadside and through the clouds.
Their journey culminates into a valiant duel with the king of demons. They engage in a hilarious fight sequence with the demon, an imaginary one though. But the movement of hand and legs, and facial expressions, made the audience feel the presence of a demon.
Their hunt for the weapon takes them to places which also includes the very depths of hell. After a tiring journey for fixing the nuclear weapon problem and going to various places, they find and mends it and save the world from harmful radiation.
While performing, the actors landed up in the audience and sipped and spat water on each other’s faces. This added to the comic flavour of the act and drew laughter and whistles from the audience. They also did the same with a few people from the audience, who took it sportingly.
The play gives a message that no matter how clumsy someone can get, like the actors, if they have an urge to save the world and work for humanity, they will end up doing good deeds, and deserve all the love.
The quality of actors’ expression and natural sound effects added to the aesthetic and fun element to the drama.
Kevin said, “Our idea was to put up a show that will express the universal language of theatre. Body language, facial expressions and sound effect worked wonders.”
Taylor said, “A trustworthy partner can make a difficult silent comedy easy. Verbal noises, postures and comic timing made the audience split into laughter.”