Thriller chiller killer comic!

Murder is a strange and grisly aspect. And one sure shot way of ensuring that it does not happen is to put an audience of a 100 eager spectators in front of a criminal. Which is probably why crime thrillers on the Bengaluru stage have been few and far between. But navigating the risky business of portraying a detective mystery is the city group Fools and Sages – who introduce city detective Percy Nagaraj in their play The Case of the Gluttonous Goat? at Alliance Francaise tonight. And in a leap of juggling paradoxes – something that the troupe’s name clearly suggests, the play will be a comic thriller!

Playwright and one of the lead actors Ranjeet Bhide wrote the plot in the form of a novel before he realised the potential of a bumbling detective and his faithful chronicler and used these characters for a number of short stories and then finally brought them to this play. He says, “The obvious challenge was to have fun with a serious subject. I realised that the audience, contrary to what we think, love to imagine things. So at times when intrigue has to be communicated, we have used the common theatrical measures in our hand – like a trick of lighting or the rise of music.”

In a cast of 12 actors, who have been meeting at 6.30 am or late in the evening, after work, Ajai Ravikesawan notices a natural tendency to experiment. He says, “We are all working professionals but when it came to a thriller, we realised that we would have to do some stylistic experiments. Ranjeet wrote a novel about a goofy detective, Percy, with a predilection for finding himself in the oddest of situations. We have tried to bring the drama alive with a new look at crime. And as the name suggests, there is also a goat there, somewhere.”

In fact, it is with wit and humour that the team have navigated the grim aspects of death and human violence. Director and actor Ashwathi Iyer throws light on the instrumental benefits of humour to make meaning of the morbidity. “The comic element is something we have used to make sense of the obvious darkness in something like a murder happening. One of my favourite aspects of the play is the sheer variety of our cast,” says the 24 year old city girl.