Putting a Stoppard To It

NCPA’s new production revives a Tom Stoppard satire that mixes music and political musing

Given the dumbfounded regard that British playwright Tom Stoppard often elicits, his work can sometimes seem too daunting to perform, but Every Good Boy Deserves Favour—a play where actors are as integral as the on-stage orchestra—becomes even harder to stage because theatre companies invariably lack the required logistical bandwidth. It is for this reason that Bruce Guthrie, head of theatre at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), decided to revive it.

“We are one of the few organisations who can do a play like this because we have a world-class, inhouse orchestra,” says Guthrie, whose aim has been to produce “bespoke pieces” that highlight the NCPA’s strengths. For Every Good Boy…, he had actors at his disposal, yes, but also 45 musicians from the NCPA’s Symphony Orchestra of India who will be playing instruments on stage and saying the odd line. The show runs from November 4-6.

That, though, is only half the reason for the NCPA to stage this epic production. There’s also the play’s subject. Set in the communist USSR, the play, a political satire, centres on two men, both named Alexander Ivanov, who share a cell in a psychiatric prison system: one is a political dissident, while the other is a schizophrenic who imagines he is the conductor of an orchestra. Guthrie knows only too well how pertinent the play feels today.

includes a combination of plays, music concerts, dance performances, readings, and conversations.

Kunal Kapoor (left), the director of Prithvi Theatre, mentions that while putting together this edition of the festival, he was particularly inspired by an age-old theatre philosophy— “The stage is never dark.” Kapoor, though, by his own admission, remained confident that he wouldn’t have to go out of his way to ensure that audiences came back in hordes to Prithvi Festival: “What is amazing is that since the theatre [Prithvi Theatre] opened up to 100 per cent [occupancy], it has experienced a pleasantly surprising average daily attendance of 83 per cent.”

In the two years of the pandemic, Prithvi Theatre adapted and held a series of online workshops, the experience of which made Kapoor realise how difficult it is to replicate the physical atmosphere at Prithvi

Theatre. To that end, the lineup this year is dedicated to underlining the power of the performing arts. Plays in several languages— Hindi, English, Tibetan, Marathi and Gujarati— have all been included. Writer-director Makarand Deshpande opens the festival by bringing his play Dat

Teri Yeh Grihasthi to the stage on November 4. That is followed by Bhoomi on November 5, noted theatre troupe Adishakti’s English

stage adaptation of Sara Jospeh’s Malayalam play Bhoomirakshasam.

Music aficionados can look out for a jazz show by the multihyphenate Louis Banks on November 7, and an electrifying closing performance by the musicians of the Symphony Orchestra of India on November 14. Although, for many, the highlight of the festival might be the two sets of poetry readings by veteran actor and theatre personality Naseeruddin Shah on November 13. Kapoor, for one, hopes that people show up in large numbers to celebrate the performing arts because this year’s curation feels to him like it is “celebrating the audiences”. ■