Comedy capers

Directed by Pranava Singhal, Aarti Phatarphekar, Charanjit Saluja, ‘Calangute Cocktales’ set in a Goa resort are all about frolic and humour

Dramatic Circle Hyderabad presented the ‘DCH Newbies’ in ‘Calangute Cocktales’ (four short plays adapted from Neil Simon’s Hilarious ‘California Suite’ series) on Tuesday and Wednesday at Lamakaan.

The show began with the ‘Wedding Blues’ - A young bride ‘Mimi’ locks herself up in the bathroom, minutes before her wedding. Her mother Maya calls her father Amit Reddy from the banquet hall and her parents try to ask her the problem. During the commotion, Mimi’s father Amit is angry and says, “Around 160 guests are drinking my alcohol, I paid for the 28 waiters and four musicians and pandit may ask us to get the bride any time.” Though the parents are worried about their tensed daughter, yet father calculates the amount he spent on her marriage.

Parents discuss Mimi’s love for Mohan Rao and how she wanted to marry him since two years. And now, when they were finally ready, she locks herself up and they fail to understand her problem. They try to blame each other for her upbringing.

The play maintains a steady momentum and as it goes on, the audience is also keen to know about bride’s problem. But, it only takes her would be husband to say - “Cool It Ra”, and Mimi steps out. Amit Reddy is surprised and wonders what magic the three words had. The play is a humourous take on today’s younger generation that the parents find so hard to understand.

The second play “Joint Vacation” is about two ‘Best Friend’ couples who take a joint holiday to Goa, but they can’t stand each other, half-way through the journey. But in the end, Unnikrishnan sits on Jay’s chest, and forces him to agree that this was the best vacation they have ever had!

The third play “We Two and The Hooker too” is about a man who wakes up to find a hooker in his bed and his wife at the door. Raj visits Goa, to attend his nephew’s wedding. On the day of wedding he finds a sloshed hooker on his bed and same day his wife Mini lands from Delhi. Raj tries to hide the hooker.

Finally, when his wife discovers the hooker, Raj explains how she was a gift from his brother and that he didn’t even know about her. Like a typical Indian woman Mini forgives him. And they live happily ever after. Until then it is a laughter trip watching the hapless husband unsuccessfully trying to hide the hooker.

The last play “Trouble Back To Back” is about a couple who fly to Goa for a Shakira concert, but end up writhing in pain on the floor instead and along with them the bell boy who comes in with an intention to steal the tickets and the doctor who comes to treat, all end up hurt and in pain. All the trouble comes back to back!

In ‘Calangute Cocktales’, the varied situations been brought out as plays in an interestingly humourous manner. The first-time actors of DCH have given commendable performances, especially considering, it is not so easy to make people laugh, and humour is the most difficult of the acting skills. ‘Wedding Blues’ comes across as the best in terms of execution and script.