A Funny Thing Called Life is a series of five short stories that highlight everyday life scenarios in the most contemporary, modern set-up. The string that draws these stories together is the palpable humour evident in these situations that would make it seem infinitely better, if only we noticed!
The cast members, Prashanth Kumar Nair, Vikram Sridhar, Badrivishal Kinhal, Kalyani Kumar and Piyush Agarwal have been on the theatre scene for over nine years and A Funny Thing Called Life has got them a lot of recognition. Vikram Sridhar notes on the importance that they realised the need for plays to have a change in space. Prashanth Kumar Nair, the director wrote these five short stories in a span of six months. The real intention behind this play was to be fluid in the space it was performed in. “I started writing these stories that could be moved to a different space besides the standard theatrical venue. This play can be performed anywhere, in a bookstore, a cafe or even at home,” he explains.
The five stories titled, The Last Ten Minutes, Love and Lighting, Statue, The Art of Meaning and Right or Left, are all characteristically urban and refer to modern life. The humour-filled conversations in this play are profound, in the sense that the characters remain blissfully unaware of how funny they seem. Especially highlighted are Vikram Sridhar and Badrivishal Kinhal’s performance of The Last Ten Minutes. As actors who have known each other for long, this team has managed to utilise their real life relationships in their performances, “The arguments that Vikram and I have as friends is translated on stage as well,” says Badrivishal.
All the cast members have days jobs besides theatre, which makes life just a little more interesting than it should be. Kalyani Kumar, an actor in the play says, “I hope the audience has a lot of fun at the show. Personally, it was fun to say and do things that I don’t do otherwise through my character.”
The content of the play has evolved in terms of narration and the feedback that the creators get from their audience. Piyush Agarwal says, “From artistes who just wanted to do a play, overtime our learning has evolved into exploring different forms of the art. We are now keen to ensure that our audience goes home with some thought.” A Funny Thing Called Life intends to do just that, as they bring out the funny in the supposedly unfunny.
The play will be staged at Atta Galatta on July 1 at 7.30 pm.
