Udaan is a theatre group I have been a fan of for quite a while. Saurabh Gharipurkar who is the man who started it all is a firm believer in simplicity and has an almost naive faith in the power of the story and the magic of underacting. Today’s show at LaMakaan was no different.

The story is about a man who has lost interest in life and wants to end it…but is the reason his broken heart or failed attempts at getting a job…Ashutosh as the bearded protagonist bumbles around stage in a masterful display of controlled hysteria. And allows a series of hyper characters to bring some serious overacting onto the caricature of a stage. The three over actors who deserve mention are the young man who played Prakash, Suresh who played a cartoon cliche Tam and Poonam who caricatured the quintessential TV walli mausi. Brilliant performances from Asutosh and these three were by themselves worth the evening. But the others too…the postman, the baniya etc. carried themselves off beautifully.

Meenal Mishra had the audience in splits and ended the play in a nice and dramatic fashion.

The only bummer was the audio control. When we have actors who are not using mikes, the levels of the background music need to be severely controlled. And this phenomenon was absolutely missing. I have always wondered why at LaMakaan they set up the audio console just in front of the stage…instead of behind the audience. If the sound engineers can actually hear what the audience is hearing, audio balancing is easier.

At the end of the pleasant evening the question – To be or not to be – was answered with a smile and a hearty round of applause.