As Singapore settles down for yet another weekend, it reminds me of a play I had watched a month ago — just in time for Valentine’s Day — and even now, thinking about it gives me a good laugh.
The play was an adaptation of Ray Cooney’s Run For Your Wife, performed at The Black Box, National Library Drama Centre. Theatre and film actor Tania Mukherjee directed this first-ever Singapore performance of this comedy, with all four shows being sold out.
Well-known actors from Singapore’s local expat theatre scene — Rachita Arke, Priyashree Deorukhkar, Viral Patel, Gautam Marathe, Jeff Martin and Bipin Balakrishnan — were in the cast.
Watching an “ordinary” Indian taxi driver in London secretly use his flexible work schedule to sustain two homes with two wives, until an unexpected event forces the two worlds to collide and implode — that was a hilarious way to spend the Valentine’s Day weekend.
From the get-go, the stage set and opening actors did a wonderful job of setting the premise of two homes and two wives, with Rachita Arke and Priyashree Deorukhkar’s excellently-timed dialogue delivery as Meera and Bindu Singh. That the two women sat at opposite ends of the same sofa was visually symbolic on several levels.
Tania Mukherjee’s set design was minimalistic, clean yet comprehensive. The actors navigated around the well-placed furniture in such a way that created the perfect ‘pressure-cooker’ environment that the play needed.
Viral Patel’s skilful dialogue delivery (that Indian accent!), comedic timing and facial expressions cleverly turned the “supporting role” of Sanjay Ganjavalla (Jogi Singh’s good friend and neighbour) into a thread that paced the play. If the rest of the audience was like me, they would have been watching Patel’s expressions even when he wasn’t delivering the dialogues and action.
Patel’s performance gave strong support to the excellent comedic chemistry between Sanjay’s and Jogi’s characters that held the play together. The two actors made good use of their body language, with Bipin Balakrishnan playing up well the violent physical comedy energy characteristic of a farce.
The tension between various characters did brilliantly to evoke varying emotions in the audience: notably between the two detective sergeants, and more so between Meera and Sanjay. The latter was both exasperating and strangely endearing, as poor Sanjay attempted to both uphold Jogi’s web of lies and alleviate poor Meera’s sanity to the best of his quirky and silly abilities. Even the audience was appalled at the possible suggestion by Sergeant Porterhouse of Sanjay and Meera “cuddling in bed”.
The problems escalated when all parties ended up coming together towards the end — at the revelation of a possible gay relationship in the story. At this point, even Gautam Marathe’s composed and calm character, Detective Sergeant Jimmy, caved in to the chaos when his homophobic feelings were strongly triggered.
Here, Marathe’s skilful stutter, despite having been present from the start, suddenly turned into a defining characteristic. Kudos to the actor, as well as the director, for character development.
If I had to pick the best acting performance of the night, it would be Porterhouse, Porterhouse, Porterhouse. Jeff Martin portrayed the pleasant, likeable character with steady, controlled and well-managed acting and dialogue delivery. Porterhouse made us feel warm and fuzzy and safe amidst the chaotic circumstances unfolding dangerously on stage, with his good-natured marriage and parenting advice, and frilly tea-making apron.
All in all, I walked out agreeing with an audience member I overheard saying “a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon”. It took me over a day to get the stitches out of my sides.
