Rehearsal notes

I am sitting in a rehearsal room of our new play, Some Girls, which opens next week. Mad panic has set in. I watch debutante actors VJ Juhi and RJ Tarana successfully wrestle with the idiom of theatre.
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Watching Tarana reminds of the first time I heard her voice on Radio MiD DAY, way back before it was GO or Radio One. A lot was different then. The city was (and sometimes still is) called Bombay. Plays were scheduled on weekends only. Cinema tickets were cheaper, even in black. People had real first names, not "VJ" and "RJ". And the "proper" rains would come in June, not September.
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Life was simple. We used to look forward to getting wet in the rain. The streams down Peddar Road would carry paper boats, not automobiles. Festivals were eagerly anticipated, not dreaded.
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But even back then, the women were gorgeous, the men were idiots. Sorry, I am back at rehearsal again. Ooh a joke, I laugh aloud. Mukul really cracks me up.
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Recently the city has been attacked by stand-up comedy. Last weekend alone saw six sold-out shows. Has the stand-up phenomenon finally hit us? Are we now comfortable laughing at ourselves?

The incredible success of these shows seems to say "yes". But it also points to the fact, that after a hard week of battling traffic, heat, butter shortage and innumerable other obstacles, all we want to do is sit down and laugh at someone's jokes.
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Ah, tea break at rehearsal. Bourbon biscuits and Parle G regular theatre favourites. While everything in the city has changed at such rapid pace (except our sea link, which took it's time), the good old Parle G has looked the same all these years.

Last night my cook Raju asked me which was more important the look of a food or its taste. A tough one. Roadside seekh kebabsu00a0 taste divine, but look like...well you know. seekh kebabs at fancy Mughlai place look divine, but taste like...well you know. However, the restaurant charges more. Ergo, the presentation is more important. Or is it? Curd rice looks like dung but tastes great. Brinjals look great but taste like dung. Eventually we settled on "depends on the circumstance".
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Looks like rehearsal is wrapping up; need to put the NCPA rehearsal room back in order, even though it is home to us for the next week or so. Just as we get downstairs, the heavens open up. Should I start looking for transport to get home as fast as possible or step out into the rain and search for the nearest seekh kebab vendor? Decisions decisions!

Quasar Thakore Padamsee, director and theatre junkie