AMATEUR THEATRICALS

When I came to American College from Madras Christian College as a lecturer in English, I had already put up several plays in MCC, including the highly acclaimed Murder in the Cathedral.

In Madurai I was expected to take over the Shansi plays, of the Oberlin Shansi group. I did just that for awhile. Most of the plays put up were hits. The Shansi reps like Julian Smith, David Gere and Sarah Lindholm were very good performers. Julian Smith later became a famous architect, and designed the satellite campus of the American college. David Gere was the younger brother of Richard Gere, the Hollywood star. After performing for awhile under the aegis of Oberlin Shansi we decided to start our own club.

It was called Curtain Club, and had as its symbol three arches which were erected on the stage too.

Some popular actors


Prominent among the Curtain Club players were Mrs.Thilaka Ratnam, the headmistress of Vikaasa School at that time, Miss.Aneena Joseph who had been my student in MCC, and was now a lecturer in Lady Doak College, and Miss.Shyamala Laxman, a lively character who was a lecturer in Fatima College.

Mr.Ernest Ratnam, the husband of Tilaka Ratnam sometimes joined the group and played roles opposite to his wife. Dr.A.R.Venkitaraman of the Chemistry department of the American College, played many roles in the Curtain Club. Prof Nedumaran played flamboyant roles much appreciated by the younger audiences. His roles in Arms and the Man and You Never can Tell were smash hits.

Julian Smith gave superb performances in Mr.Pim Passes By and An Inspector Calls. In the former he played an absent-minded bungler with hilarious effect. Another outstanding performance was by Usha Ratnam , the daughter of the Ratnams. We were performing four plays that day, and Usha had a role in one of these plays. On the final day the main player in one of these plays had to leave because of a death in the family. We didn’t know what to do, and then Usha Ratnam suddenly offered to do that role too. That was the main role, and Usha already had a major role in another play. Anyway, we rushed through a few extra rehearsals. And on the day of the performance we were all stunned by the masterful performance put up by Usha in the two plays.

A theatrical gesture


I instructed the rest of the cast to take one backward step while taking the bow in the end. I made a brief announcement about Usha’s achievement and then all the other actors and actresses took one step back, leaving Usha in the centre stage in the front.. The applause that followed was thunderously enthusiastic.

Another lively actress was Meena Balasubramaniam, who took the type of roles that Shyamala Laxman had done.Meena was a student in the first batch of MA(Eng) in American College. There was one scene in the play in which Renu Bose said that Meena would not have gone off but must be eavesdropping at the door. “I’ll prove that that at least is wrong” says Nedumaran and pulls the door open only to have Meena falling flat into the room. This scene was greeted with clamorous applause. And every time Meena fell down with great effect. She had a good role to play throughout the two years she was in the MA Class. One play, Waiting for Godot was performed in Madras, and won great laurels.

Curtain Club lasted for several years and won rave reviews in the press and great popularity among the theatre going public. It closed down when I retired in 1994. It is still fondly remembered by many.

PHYSICAL INCONGRUITIES ON STAGE AND SCREEN !

The physique and the role




In my younger days the top two heroes in Tamil films were M.K.Thiagaraja Baghavathar (MKT) and P.U.Chinnappa (PUC). Both of them sang beautifully. But that is about all that could be said for them. MKT had a delicate physique, and so when he was made to fight successfully against thugs, it was rather difficult to believe.

Too fat


PUC was really fat. His cheeks bulged out and his middle seemed to have broken many a belt, and one had the uneasy feeling that it may burst any moment. He certainly was not a picture of male beauty. But the heroine generally took one look at him and wondered: “Who is that handsome guy?” (Yaar andha sundara purushan?) causing guffaws in the audience.

Sivaji Ganesan, in the later part of his career developed an enormous paunch, and sought to conceal it by wearing a loose coat unbuttoned in the front so that it blocked the view from the side. But still the protuberance could be spotted, which was incongruous in a “young” hero. Towards the end of his career Sivaji lost a couple of teeth, and looked really old and haggard. But he was asked to play a medical student, and he agreed. According to film gossip in magazines, he was asked by the producer to set his teeth, but he refused to do so since he wanted it fixed only in Singapore. And so he appeared sans teeth in his role as a college student. And the heroine who looks young enough to be his daughter takes one look at the ‘sundara purushan’ and falls like a ton of bricks for him. All this strains the audience’s willing suspension of disbelief considerably. Laughter abounded in the theatre even when the scene on screen did not warrant it.

This incongruity between the physique of the actor and the role he played was a common thing even in the West, particularly on stage. In ‘Romeo and Juliet’ the audience expects the actors to be slim and elegant in keeping with Shakespeare’s tribute to youthful love. Sometimes we are faced with fat Juliets or ageing Romeos. In one such pairing, Madam Suzanne Lagier, who was a good actress but extremely stout, and Pierre Tallade, a lean actor were paired. Romeo found it extremely difficult to carry Juliet, which he was called on to do in a scene. He tried with all his might to lift the obese heroine, but although she helped him by standing on tiptoe in the usual trick of the trade, he was unable to move her an inch. At this juncture a boy cried out from the audience, “Take what you can, and come back for the rest!” And the audience broke out into laughter ill-suited for a tragedy.


Too tall


Another kind of incongruity is when the actress is taller than the actor. Raj Kapoor, when he first met his new heroine, Vyjayanthimala, was dismayed to find that she was taller than him. “Don’t tell me I’ll have to use a step-ladder in the love scenes” he said. But they did act together using set tricks like slightly raised surfaces and camera ruses. The film ‘Sangam’ was a hit.

When the great Hollywood actress Katherine Hepburn first met the seasoned actor Spencer Tracy in the audition for their first film together, she said “I am afraid I am too tall for you, Mr.Tracy” And he said “Don’t worry Miss.Hepburn, I’ll soon cut you down to my size.” And they went on to become a very popular pair with several films together. And it was also the beginning of one of the most famous of Hollywood romances.

One of the fattest Hamlets was the actor Edmund Tearle who looked like an elephant in tights. So when he pronounced the famous lines “O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, thaw, or resolve itself into a dew” the audience burst into laughter spoiling the soliloquy. And a fat Portia (The Merchant of Venice) equalled him as a provoker of laughter when she complained “My little body is a-weary of this world”.

The physiques of the actor and actress can cause unscheduled merriment, which is part of the fun in the theatre.