Arts
For a good night out at the theatre, Cold Theatre 7 delivered
Last year Cold Theatre 7 staged the seminal play 12 Angry Wo/Men, a dialogue heavy courtroom drama, under the careful direction of Kevin Cruze. Opening to good reviews, the play featured some of the best thespians in the country and its heavy subject matter provided a lot of food thought. Perhaps it is for this reason that Cold Theatre 7 decided to go the opposite way for their next show and undertake something lighter and more comical, like ‘The Opposite Sex’.
The play features two couples with each partner despising their spouse but who have, in some way, been involved with the opposite partner. Mark (played by Shehan Wijemanne on the night I attended), is a cheeky advertising associate who is married to the no-nonsense Vicky (Sulochana Perera). Upon meeting Jeannette (played by Kavitha Gunesekera), Mark recognises her as an old flame and invites her and her husband, Derrick (Wasaam Ismail) to dinner.
The living room, (designed in a typical beige, middle class style), becomes the centerpiece of all the action, flanked by a hilarious caricature of Mark and Vicky. What makes the play come alive is its sparky characters whose different personalities clash – the slightly dim-witted but sweet natured Jeannette is married to the sexist, pseudo-intellectual, yuppie-hating Derrick. Mark takes every opportunity to display his unserious nature and antagonize his vengeful, sassy wife.
The dinner takes a left turn when, after a bizarre therapy session involving Vicky (who is a marriage guidance counsellor), it transpires she previously had an affair with Derrick leading to all sorts of other drama. There’s not much in the way of a plot so the script relies on outdoing itself in its insults and there’s plenty of opportunity to do so. Perhaps it was just me but I didn’t find the comedy quite as hysterical and laugh out loud funny as some members of the audience but that’s not to say it wasn’t amusing to watch.Mark throws out most of the gags at the expense of his wife (Vicky memorably comments, ‘I lost most of my friends when I married Mark’), and taunts the vegetarian Derrick (‘Don’t you think it’s immoral to eat animals?’ ‘Most of the animals I eat are dead already’).
When taking into account all the English-speaking comedies that are performed in Sri Lanka, I am struck by two things. There’s a tendency, when performing such British comedies that feature middle class couples, for actresses to thicken and raise their voices by a couple of octaves which strikes me as weird. It’s not a bad thing, just slightly…odd. The second thing, is that performing humour here sometimes takes on the‘bigger is better’ approach – the gestures are more pronounced and flouncy, the shrieks are louder. Again, not a bad thing, but there’s a lot to be said for a comedy where the performance of humour is subtle and works its way into your brain, slowly but assertively.
Having said that, I can’t be too critical of the play because in the context of what it was you’re not meant to take it seriously. Each actor took on their role with enthusiasm and produced a solid performance and the proof is in how the audience responded – positively AND raucously! For a good night out at the theatre, Cold Theatre 7 delivered.