She Said/He Saidis going to be a must watch rom-com for the audience in the Capital. Director Anasuya Vaidya spoke to Ila Sankrityayan about this musical play that has all the elements to make people laugh and enjoy it till the end
It’s evening time in a pretty Delhi park, complete with joggers, football players and street vendors. A romantic young couple, their best friend and their gossipy neighbour decide to have a picnic in the park. Their picnic turns into a very funny squabble and fight because of a big misunderstanding, but all’s well that ends well. They are followed by another young couple who start off as strangers but end up as lovers! But a strange man disturbs their notion of romantic love by planting a ‘devilish’ notion in their heads. But is anyone who they really seem to beIJ It’s fun, laughs, love and music all the way! Sing along to some of our favourite songs over the decades like ‘Dil ka bhawar kare pukaar’, ‘Abhi na jao chhod ke’ and ‘Summertime’ and laugh your head off at the freaky fun of She Said/He Said.
This 70 minute raining comedy is all set to grab the attention of viewers at Akshara Theatre as two couples discover the complexity of love in a pretty neigborhood park. The backdrop of the park on the stage is a beautiful painting by Norwegian artist Ida Elisabeth. Directed by Anasuya Vaidya, the play will be performed by Dhruv Shetty, Rakesh Palisetty, Ankur Anand, RS Raghu, Pragya Priyadarshini, Praggya Jain, Yashna Shetty and others, with a musical cameo by Nisa Shetty.
“This is actually two short plays – She Said/He Said and love In The Park which have been harmonized into one show. It’s a light-hearted musical comedy,” said Vaidya about her production.
Thus the play presents two love stories that move parallel to each other. And the director showcases the development of story with the passage of time in the play. Among the power-walkers, footballers, roadside romeos andchannawallas, two couples grapple with the mysteries of love. As she said, “The play is set in a single evening in a park, so there is a background of joggers, footballers and roadside romeos who come to watch girls. The two stories unfold one after the other against this common background. It’s a happy play - so though there are misunderstandings and tiffs, there is a happy ending all around.”
It is a light-hearted musical comedy with some beautiful ‘golden oldie’ songs, but there are serious undertones which have been done in a satirical way – for instance in the park, the ‘eve-teasers’ are played by girls, and the ‘eves’ are boys, so there are some gender-bender twists. Though the director calls it a raining comedy, rain doesn’t play a part in the play. “We’re just performing it in the rainy season – hence “raining comedy” – metaphorically speaking,” she added. While talking about the idea behind the play she laughed and shared, “The idea of She Said/He Said is like “tu-tu mein-mein”, and also there is a lot of gender-bending.” Vaidya continued revealing about the beginning of this idea and said, “This play is an adaptation of two short plays by American playwright Alice Gerstenberg. Though originally set in New York of the 30’s, the plays somehow lent themselves rather well to present-day New Delhi. I started work on the adaptation and direction about a year and a half ago and we premiered it last summer (2015).” The director has given lot of emphasis on the choice of leads for her production that can well go with the character and get into the skin of their roles.
She elucidated, “The main leads are Dhruv Shetty, Rakesh Palisetty and Ankur Anand. They are extremely talented young actors in our Repertory. They have received intensive training from Gopal Sharman and Jalabala Vaidya. Additionally Dhruv is a very good singer. They are all quite adept at wearing wigs and dresses and playing girls! The female leads are Praggya Jain and Pragya Priyadarshini, senior acting students of our Diksha Program. There will be two guest performers singer-actress Nisa Shetty and stand-up comedian, Kishore Dayani, who perform cameos.”