THE OPPOSITE SEX
From the amateur theatre company that brought to life many awe-inspiring plays such as “And then there were none”, “Twelve Angry Men/women” and “The Mousetrap”, comes a farcical comedy of love and marriage -
“The Opposite Sex.”
Penned by David Tristram, this side-splitting comedy portrays a hilarious tale of two couples who had had an affair with each other's partners at some point in the past. This ends up transforming what was supposed to be a pleasant social gathering, into a total disaster. Although the play is centered around a serious issue of the repercussions of adultery, no one could remain a single moment without doubling up with laughter at every word.
The show started with Mark, portrayed by Shehan Wijemanne, coming home after one of his late night escapades to face the wrath of Vicky - his wife, portrayed by Sulochana
Perera. Vicky's late night visitor, the Avon lady, Jeannette, played by
Kavitha Gunasekara, coincidentally happens to be the only woman, besides Vicky, that Mark has managed to sleep with. In a bizarre turn of events Mark invites Jeannette for dinner the next day much to the surprise of Vicky, who is astounded that Mark is being polite and merely thinks it's because he's drunk. Little does she know that
Mark simply wants to “get in to Jeannettes pants”
again. A turn of events takes place the next day as Derrick, a rude and profound vegetarian portrayed by Wasaam Ismail, gets off to a bad start with Mark.
To make things worse, it turns out that Derrick had an affair with Vicky and particularly had great memories at the back of his Morris Minor! They soon find out about each other's little sexual escapades and the night turns into one hell of a nightmare - involving flying cutlery, a broken vase, the police and a hot steel poker.
The play was absolutely bone tickling and left the audience roaring with laughter throughout the show.
It was certainly a “battle of wits”
- as quipped by Wasaam, as the play involved a lot of word play and intelligent comedy, instead of being slapstick inclined. It was hilarious to see the witty insults that Derrick threw at the thick headed Jeannette, calling her a “stupid bint”, and the loud mouthed Vicky raving at her husband, who replied with the most comical of comebacks. All the actors spoke with amazing clarity and diction and each one seemed completely immersed in their roles. Each of them brought out the own character arc through the course of the play, and it was an absolute delight to watch. Wasaam did a splendid job of portraying the stiff, stuck up and politically inclined role of Derrick and succeeded in making the audience roar with laughter with his rude humour towards his wife. Kavita definitely had the audience mesmerised with her superb portrayal of a middle aged, timid and “thick” woman who has been putting up with Derrick for the longest time. Although there were a few instances where her lines were lost due to the audience laughter, her portrayal of this character was truly perfect. Sulochana, on the other hand, portrayed her role of a strong minded, opinionated woman extremely well and her clarity and diction as well as her stage presence were commendable. Shehan, who played the flamboyant role of Mark, was absolutely hilarious with his witty jokes and comebacks to his wife's uproars.
The set, being Mark and Vicky's house, was done beautifully and remained the same throughout the show. Additionally, the lighting and background tracks complemented the entire play perfectly.
It was truly an entertaining evening and everything you would expect from a good comedy. A job well done by the director, Kevin Cruze, and his team at Cold Theatre 7 including backstage, for putting up an amazing performance and keeping the audience in stitches the whole night which definitely couldn't have been an easy task.