Prolific, but...

Merry lives : Actors rehearse for Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Boheme at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Spain. La Boheme is Puccini’s fourth work for the stage and was produced in 1896. It was an instant success. Set in Paris of 1820s, the piece reflects the Epicurean principle of living in and for the present. (AFP)

The most prolific group in Calcutta staged two new one-hour works within the space of a week. Theatrecian adapted Albee’s The Zoo Story as The Mumbai Zoo, and then introduced a teenage director to present British author Jeremy Seabrook’s Transplant.

Tathagata Chowdhury scripted and designed Mumbai Zoo as a multivalent loop of takes on Albee’s examination of territorial instincts in the urban jungle. Keeping the basic situation and some of the dialogue, he reinterpreted it from several perspectives seen through the eyes of two Indians belonging to different communities in the context of a hostile Mumbai, likened to a bestial zoo.

Unusually, he placed the park bench with its back to the audience, and enacted a solo portrayal of both men in confrontation. A daring concept, it needed a stronger actor than Chowdhury to effect the quick transformations of character.

Seabrook had composed Transplant as the libretto for a musical. When such a script is performed without any music, the scenes emerge very choppy, testing one’s abilities of comprehension.

It became very difficult to trace the links between the homicidal psychopath at the beginning, the kidney transplant at the core and the abuse of a maid at the end.

As it turned out, the tensest episode was the assault on the maidservant by the man of the house, delicately blocked by 17-year-old Shayak Chakraborty, the director.

Most of the cast study in high school or college, and acquitted themselves well, given their age and inexperience.

The new Maria

Connie Fisher: Dream come true

A record £ 1.1 million worth of advance tickets were sold the day before the premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s controversial new production of The Sound of Music, after receiving rave reviews.

A spokesman for the London Palladium, where the £4 million production was staged on November 15, said: “We took £1.1 million at the box office in just eight hours. It was a record amount for one day.”

A triumphant Lloyd Webber, who endured snooty disapproval for choosing the lead actress through the BBC reality show How to Solve a Problem Like Maria?, said: “I’ve never seen a response from the audience like it in my career. Connie is one of the most exciting talents I have ever seen. She’s raised the game across the board.”

The cast at the Palladium received a standing ovation from the audience.

Fisher’s mother, Janet, 55, and her grandmother, Dorothy, 83, travelled from their farmhouse in Pembrokeshire to watch. They are said to have encouraged her stage ambitions from an early age by playing her videos of The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins.

As a teenager growing up in Wales, 23-year-old Fisher had struggled to obtain stage work and had begun to question whether musical theatre was the right career for her.

Not any more. Describing the critical acclaim as “a dream come true”, Fisher explained afterwards she was always confident of her suitability for the role of Maria: “Audiences have always commented on my Julie Andrews-like qualities, both on and off the stage, and I can’t think of a more suitable role. I have always dreamed of playing Maria.”