Unusual premise, zany dialogue power Stagecraft comedy

NAGPUR: A fortnight after its previous production, Stagecraft Theatre is back, now mining humour from the absurd and zany. The group has followed up its whodunnit ‘Murder on the Madh’ with an out-and-out comedy, titled ‘The Family Jewels’.
Fleshed out from a 20-minute short play ‘The Maternal Pistol’ staged last year, the comedy takes what all can possibly go wrong in a wedding reception and turns it on its head. Writer-director Onkar Ghare creates an outlandish world with characters saying (and doing) the most ridiculous things with a straight face.
The groom (performed by Bhupesh Wankar) frantically flees the stage after spotting the bride’s gun-toting uncle (Nirmalya Sinha) in the reception hall. Hiding in a room with the baffled company of his best friend (Mrunmayee Kurhade) and brother (Ajinkya Barhate), the groom narrates the unlikely circumstances of his first meeting with the fearsome uncle.
On the face of it, the bone of contention is a family heirloom, but as the story unfolds, character after quirky character from the bride and groom’s side waltzes in, virtually altering the implication of ‘family jewels’. The screenplay is interspersed with random announcements on the speaker to add to the madness. The groom’s mother (Sonal Trivedi-Malkan) and the bride (Sayali Umredkar) eventually surface, imbuing shock value into the farcical proceedings.
Stagecraft Theatre founder Vikash Khurana credits the germination of Ghare’s 70-minute comedy presentation to ‘Stagecraft Adda’, a platform where a series of short plays find their way to the stage. There have been 12 editions of Adda, which was started in 2013. Covid curbs last year led to a YouTube release of the 12th edition, which featured five shorts — one of which was The Maternal Pistol.
The platform gives Khurana the opportunity to evaluate talent more holistically and organically than an audition process. “Instead of being judged on a rehearsed 10-minute performance, candidates get to experience theatre. Those not interested in the perseverance the medium demands get filtered out, and the committed ones remain,” the venerated theatre proponent said.
While happy with the reception to the two post-pandemic productions, Khurana wanted theatre-going audiences to display the kind of patronage they used to, before pandemic struck.
The group’s next offering will be a Hindi play called ‘Shankhnaad’. Currently in the writing stage, the drama is the translation of ‘Gongs of Shiva’, which was written years ago by Khurana’s grandfather Dewan Sharar.
The Family Jewels has two more shows at Dr Hardas Hall, IMA Annexe, at 5pm and 7.30pm on Sunday.