The first thing that struck me was that the Dramatic Circle Hyderabad should immediately meet the Set Designer. Because Unnati Pingle is the perfect inheritor of the Set Designer mantle from Dinaz Noria (who no longer works in Theatre) and Aparna Karve (that lovely girl who is now redesigning heaven).

The set, designed and fabricated by Unnati (and sponsored by her she says) set the standards for an evening at the Hyderabad Golf Club with the Blithe Spirit.

But alas, the rest of the performance was no match.

I am not saying the actors couldn’t act. Far from that. They could all act. But seemed unfortunately to be actors from different schools…with the same backdrop.

Confusing? You bet.

In contrast to the oh so symmetrical and classy background set with the sofa set centered to perfection and the cushions angled to perfection, the ladies for instance were obviously more influenced by Hindi Soap than anything or anyone. The screeching was typical of a popular saas-bahu soap, and as irritating.

Stuck in the middle of all this – a hyper wife and a lisping ghost - was poor Vikram, the young husband who decided to be all docile and almost subservient…as against a more manly husband that he could perhaps have chosen to be.

What I am trying to say is that this is a malaise that seems to be affecting many theatre groups in Hyderabad. They all try and adapt, they all try to Indianize…but they all do this to different degrees. So you have a conflict of accents on stage. And lose out on consistency of sound.

So while you contend with one version of desi vs. another, you also have to contend with the fact that this is a comedy – horror play. Let me confess though, that the closest they came to horror by effect was during the interval.

As for the Comedy Angle, there was plenty to be had. Even as the climate refused to oblige and become pleasant, and the air whisperers were on full swing, things began to amuse. The constant chatter of the Golf Club members clashed with the dialogs on stage. The bursts of Fans and the sprinkling of Mist Blowers tried valiantly to battle the heat, but how much of humid summer can machines tackle?

The openness of the HGA performance space was picture perfect, but just that. Looked good only in images. The sound was dissipated due to the same openness. And the constant feedback from the speakers was an irritant, especially in the beginning of the first act.

The other problem that the space created was that it prevented the intimacy of theatre in the beginning, and thus failed to allow the actors to connect with their characters or their audience. I remember one theatre expert who taught us about the concept of concentration leakage, and how this could affect the performance focus of the audience.

Even if I ignore this, I must say that I thought the costumes were too forced. It was almost as if the Director and the Adapter/s forgot to translate not only the lines, but also the characters.

So the play began in Hyderabadi Hindi. Never to be heard again. Then the four characters spoke English in accents that put Pygmalion to shame. Their costumes too were forced. From Sarees to Nightgowns of an indiscriminate kind.

And in the middle of all this, my dear friend Rahul Reddy. Hair pulled back into a pony. Shaved and styled like a late 1940s American Gangster. Dr. Khurana could have been so much lighter…in color, in weight and in persona.

To top it all, the main sponsor of the event proved to be a big distraction…though he sat quietly in the corner, he was immediately attended to by hawk-eyes…and the obvious plugs about the club and the Volvo were so weak that they were not even funny.

And then there were the bugs. They started off innocently enough, but soon became a potent force that attacked ankles, eyes and back of the necks.

That was the last straw. I had come with great expectations. Expectations from the play, from the place and from the people. And except the set that at least remained true to design, everything else disappointed.

The script was good enough, but the tempo was established only well into the first act. Then the laugh lines started getting reactions, one after the other.

The lighting, given the temporary nature of the set up was a standard X profile with dramatic use of the LEDs. Here however I felt that the normally ever so calm and cool Keshav Deepak, allowed a bit of a slip into dramatic flickers.

The many, seemingly meaningless blackouts did not help.

Ok, I realise that I am beginning to sound caustic. And I normally avoid that tone. I know how much work has gone into the whole production. But in all fairness, the anchor for the evening did invite us to criticise without fear…

All things said and done, I did manage to see a new space. One that I’d heard so much about. That it may not be the kind of place that I’d like to put up a play is insignificant. But it did bring in a new audience…even if the same audience needs to be educated about not creating a buzz while the performance was in progress.

A word about the core team. I’ve found Director Taher Ali Baig and Producer Rahul Reddy to be a good working combination. This time too they worked. But they let Kanishka Dasgupta influence the play too little.

At the end of the evening, though I had to make a premature exit, I was confused. Some good things, others that could have been good and a few that rankled made me wonder if I should have stuck to Shakespeare itself.

But No! I have seen four or five versions of the ‘Complete Works, Abridged’ including the original English team and the inimitable Evam, and maybe I was better off not watching yet another version.

Missed the LaMakaan samosas thoughAah well…