"A Midsummer Nights Dream"

"....either to die the death or abjure the society of men...."


"A Midsummer Nights Dream" by William Shakespeare
Directed by KK
Produced by Masquerade
Mathivanan Rajendran - Oberon/Theseus
Allianz Francais - September 23-26 2005

I remember working on the sets of Mouk when KK (Of whom i must admit i was quite terrified of) said he wanted to have a word with me, well the last time anyone said that i was suspended indefinately from college!! I was thrilled and relieved when he said he wanted me to come for the MSN workshop. I don t read (rather i think i can't ...) so i had to ask Gitanjali to narrate the entire sequence of events in the play during one of our backstage bonding sessions @ mouk.


" ....fair vestal throned by the west..."


I remember belabouring over the pentameter and crossin my fingers hopin i won t have to play Oberon!! Of course Murphy decided to continue his little game with me and had me playin Oberon and Theseus as well (i must admit i am eternally grateful for the same!!). It was a huge break for the entire LS bunch and I felt like I was growing with the whole lot of em...Monty Porko,Karan,Varma,Gits....

Shankar and Yousuf Da the senior members of the cast were extremely helpful as were the younger members ...shyam aditi etc. A parallel can be made between our production and the "play within the play" itself, Here we were inexperienced enthusiastic (i dare not say actors!!) performers working towards the directors vision.Of course stumbling blocks were aplenty but i d like to believe everything turned out well.

The brilliant compostions ... the romance that transpired backstage....peering through the wings to make a head count (and hell 8 full shows!!) Meeting my 85 year old grandmother after the show.....The bouquets and the occassional brickbats....the moment that KK went on his knees after the show and humbled everyone of us... There was something magical about the show,dangerous times when you start to care less about the audience and even less about what they think.....

Top 7 s of the production - (besides having my noisy friends watch me!!)
- Varshithas chocolate cake
- Ahem!!
- Getting make up on (i must confess i really enjoyed it!!)
- Bumming Fags off Varma
- Bumbling Narasiman
- Kicking puck all over the floor and having the audience diss me
- Trippin with the fairies on the lights and Trips kickin Lysander,Helena & Demetrius

Top Iambics...
- Ill met by moonlight.....(had to be!!)
- Fare thee well nymph
- Thou art my love thou art i think
- Please die!
- Oh wall, sweet and lovely wall
- Transperent Helena...!!!

3 lessons:
1) The Creative inputs and intellegence behind playing a character are time consuming and a lot more difficult than it may seem
2) The human perspective of performers (will elucidate later)
3) Karan will hit on anything from 6-60!!( kiddin dear bully bottom!!)

Thank you KK for all the grooming and the opportunity itself.A tad late but what the hell....