Was this how it all began? A few people sitting around a fire perhaps? Dinner was being cooked and the people around indulged in the ancient practice of Story Telling. Some had dancing skills, yet others sang well. Some were percussive, yet others were harmonious. And the stories rolled out…based on a classic perhaps but drawing on the strengths of the cheeky contemporary, a cast built around raw energies and not just academically trained or qualified puritans.

Was this how it all began? Was this how Audience Interaction was first defined? Two people on stage assuming that their audience was not just the ten others on stage with them but the hundreds seated in front.

Was this how it all began? Was this how Comedy and Timing were first defined? An entire cast spinning around the whole stage to the tune of laughter and applause.

And suddenly I realised that except for the retention of the original names…Olivia, Cesario, Orsino et al…and the retention of the basic plot…the story was as Indian as the Ramayan and as complex as the Mahabharat.

(And suddenly I wonder if indeed it is the fireplace tales of our now being proven mythology that travelled across the world in translation and gave birth to every other religion…else how can you explain some generic similarities between the scriptures…but wait, I am digressing).

Digressing from tales of a wonderful performance. From Dramanon triumphs. One of the finest plays they have imported to Hyderabad and one that shall be remembered for a long while.

And I must say this was the true award for the participants of SKITS…those of them that managed to catch the show. This was a benchmark. This was unabashedly a show that told them how it should be done.

How casual can you get? How much liberties you can take with a script? How much you can cross the line and not be seen as risqué? How physically fit you need to be? How ordinary a singer you can be? How involved you need to be…

In fact I imagined an audition call for this play saying…Can you hold a note? Can you swing your butt in time? Can you live your role? Then, and only then…apply.

A fun evening if anything at all. Truly an evening when theatre made a definitive statement and clarified that it was entertainment with a capital E. And no apologies for all the liberties it had taken with form and substance.

More power to you Dramanon.