An engaging and well-enacted play

CHENNAI: The Cast Party presented by The Madras Players in association with the Boardwalkers has  nearly everything a play needs to keep its audience engaged. The first of the three shows was staged on Friday evening at the Museum Theatre. The play has been written and directed by Shreekumar Varma and Michael Muthu.The play opens with a ‘female-centric play’, where Sarla, a cop, kills her wife-beater father. After the play is over, a cast party is  held at Parveen’s (the tortured wife) place, a beach house on the ECR. While Parveen and her husband Humayun, play host to keep their guests comfortable, Tripti (the cop from the opening play) enters with Colonel Mannar, her brother-in-law, for the party. The play unfolds bit by bit, without giving away the big secret until the last scene where the Colonel kills himself for being guilty of something he has hidden for 20 long years. The story revolves around Colonel Mannar and his deep dark secret, which was safe with him until his friend Prince (played by Shankar Sundaram), a cop, drops a few hints in his drunken stupor. Like it usually happens in a party, one conversation leads to another. In a series of several revelations, the audience is introduced to several characters that form links to the main mystery surrounding Mannar. Colonel Mannar (PC Ramakrishna), Humayun (Sarvesh Sridhar) and Amala (Tehzeeb Katari) are believable. They are funny, have quick-witted repartees and have been given scope to interact with the audience. Parveen (Ameera D’Costa), Amreesh (Vinod Anand) and Tripti’s (Mahathi Suresh) characters are a tad too sketchy and contrived. Shankar Sundaram convincingly plays a drunk cop Prince, and holds the audience in his sway longer than anyone elseBe it the mini bar or the dining area with real food, the sets looked very real. The sound and lighting added to the drama of the script. The music between scene changes was fast paced and helped push the level of mystery higher. The living room was brightly lit up during the first few scenes of the play. But after the murder, the lights were toned down a bit, and the room dimly lit. The lighting clearly set the mood of the play.