The lighter side of darkness
We have seen college students give their best for their respective theatre societies, but this stage production has a no-holdsbarred approach, with 13 students from different Delhi colleges coming together to present a single act, titled Black Comedy. Adapted from Peter Shaffer’s British comedy of 1960, this play is set in a modern day Indian society where the usual conditions of light and dark have been reversed to induce humour.
The one-hour act revolves around a couple — Aditya and Naina — who have invited a millionaire home, and to impress him, they have stolen antiques from a neighbour. What happens when the lights go out and unexpected guests visit the hosts, leads to comic situations. “The reverse lighting scheme catches the audience’s attention from the beginning. Although the characters are somewhat stereotypical, their hilarious interactions in a room without lights ensure that the play is not,” says Roopali Singhal, a third-year economics honours student of Shri Ram College of Commerce, who has co-directed the play with Raghav Puri, a commerce student of the same college. The play has actors and crew from Ramjas College and Sri Venkateswara College and Jamia Millia Islamia University.
“My character, Colonel Balraj Sethi, is arguably the most conflicted person in the play. He’s a hard taskmaster replete with traditional Indian notions that disapprove of love marriage or even homosexuality. But at the same time, he would do anything to impress the millionaire. It is his split character that induces humour,” says Kabeer Ahmed Mansoori, a student of Jamia University.