Doing it impromptu

The themes varied from enacting out inanimate objects with a life – a pendulum clock- for example as also imaginary sequences from recent Bollywood hits like ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ and World War III. For over an hour, the brave hearts tried to match the audience expectations drawing upon their passion and abilities to vary their acts with the requirements

Challenges confront stage artistes in myriad ways. The pressure levels vary when they enact a sequence from a prepared skit and when they rely on their abilities and ask the audience to give them situations to stoke their creative urges.

Parroting Monkeys – calling the act ‘Improv Performances’ an hour-long performance of seven talented youngsters - Afaque, Vinay, Vipin, Suzanne, Bhagyashree, Jay, Isha, Faiz- was exactly on the line – ‘Your topics plus our craziness’- helmed by Mint Tea Creatives, a city theatre and multi-activity group.

After a short introduction about the event, which was a first for the group (as also many of the actors) who were ready to burst on to the stage catering to the crowd’s requirements, the performances kept the steadily growing audience at Lamakaan fairly engrossed on a chilly Tuesday night.

The themes varied from enacting inanimate objects – a pendulum clock - for example and also imaginary sequences from recent Bollywood hits like ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ and World War III. For over an hour, the brave hearts tried to match the audience expectations drawing upon their passion and abilities to vary their acts with the requirements.

The area of concern in such experimental attempts is the interpretation of the artistes about what they were being thrown at. Here is where the inconsistency in the performances cropped up once a while and as most of the onstage acting was impromptu, the clinical start to finish model did not work all the time. In fact, it took some clever improvisations by the actors who took turns to wind up the acts as they tended to drag now and then.

An innovative attempt for sure, one is also sure that there may be others who may be wanting to take up such variations of theatre to keep the burgeoning crowd for art and culture events interested.