Bodies aplenty, but all’s well that ends well
View(s):Nafeesa K. Amiruddeen, director of the upcoming comedy production of a Hitchcock thriller, ‘The 39 Steps’, talks to Smriti Daniel
At the helm of what might be the most challenging theatrical production Colombo has seen in recent years, its captain is quietly confident. Nafeesa K. Amiruddeen says it’s because she has a crew she can trust to keep the production afloat – four actors who feel like family (in the case of her brother, one actually is family); sound, light and stage teams who began rehearsing with the cast from day 1 and a comedic script she can truly delight in.
Nafeesa: “It’s a real challenge”
That doesn’t mean that staging ‘The 39 Steps’ is going to be easy because the four actors have an estimated 49 roles among them, the sound, light and stage crew will literally need to manage hundreds of props, costumes and effects and as for the script, “until you actually sit down with it, you don’t know how challenging it really is,” says Nafeesa. “It’s almost like a movie script.”
The co-founder of The Performing Arts Company, Nafeesa’s last stint in the director’s chair was with the intimate, reflective play ‘Love Letters’ which starred her brother Mohamed Adamally and actress Tracy Holsinger. The contrast with ‘The 39 Steps’ couldn’t be greater. “It’s the absolute opposite,” Nafeesa explains, describing the pacing of the latter as “frenetic.”
“The challenge is that the here and the now has to come through. You have to be with the protagonists, you have to be frightened for them�but somewhere in the back of your mind you know there’s going to be a happy ending. You don’t know how many bodies there will be along the way, but there’s a happy ending. It’s not going to be ‘Hamlet’ for sure.”
There are bodies aplenty, after all ‘The 39 Steps’ is based on what some consider Alfred Hitchcock’s first masterpiece which in turn was based on a the novel by John Buchan – except, the play is a different beast altogether. It’s a jubilant comedy about a thriller, one that mercilessly recreates a complex film on stage and in doing so embraces controlled chaos and (un)intentional hilarity with open arms.
Nafeesa says she’s taken care to balance the tone of the production. Though allowing her actors great freedom in how they interpret their roles, she identified where they can afford to do a little “deliberate hamming” and where they need to play it straight, clean and convincingly earnest. She doesn’t want the comedy to swamp the quiet, poignant moments in the play. “There is a message of good triumphing over evil,” she says. “There are questions raised: ‘what is our goal in life? What do we go through? What should we be looking for?’
Pic by Indika Handuwala
She’s also focusing on helping her actors develop distinctive characters with comprehensive wardrobes (inclusive of wigs, clothes, hats), props to recreate every kind of scene and a bewildering range of accents. The only stable character in the play is Richard Hannay, (played by Adam) and Nafeesa sees him as the thread that holds the exciting plot together. Luckily, the play can be forgiving of mistakes, and in any case, Nafeesa’s philosophy holds that surprises can be a good thing, adding real life to a performance.
The Performing Arts Company present
The 39 Steps directed by Nafeesa K. Amiruddeen . The play will go on the boards at the Lionel Wendt Theatre from May 11 to 19,
with a break on the 15th. Tickets can be pre-booked via FB page ’The 39 Steps – at The Lionel Wendt Theatre,’ and are on sale at the Wendt.
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