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| Artistes of Panchamveda stage Full Tension at Bhanja Kala Mandap in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati |
Bhubaneswar, May 16: Keeping a good distance from all that is serious, sensitive, thought–provoking and emotional, the Panchamveda theatre group showcased a full on comedy — Full Tension — at Bhanja Kala Mandap for three days including weekend and Monday.
It is not easy to stage a comedy in front of a live audience. A slight fumble, a little mistake here and there or even a sad chemistry between the actors can crash the entire play. But with the Full Tension team everything was smooth, effortless and tension-free.
The crisp dialogues, the fine-tuning of the actors and their perfect timing made the play a complete laughathon.
Full Tension was about a self-created tension in Nihar’s family. One of Nihar’s friends had recently bought a car, but he had to leave town for some urgent work. Before departing, he left the car under Nihar’s supervision. Nihar’s neighbourhood mistook the car as Nihar’s and started congratulating him for his new asset.
Suddenly, Nihar found himself as an object of his neighbour’s envy and the entire family enjoyed their sudden rise in status and esteem. Soon, words about Nihar’s new prized possession spread all over the town. And it was then that trouble and tension started in Nihar’s life.
The town now eyed Nihar as a man with money. The beggars suddenly hiked their prices and were no longer satisfied with what Nihar used to give them earlier, the priests demanded more cash for performing rituals, Nihar’s sister-in-law constantly begged him for a car ride all over the town. To make it worse, Nihar now has an added tension of protecting the car from thieves and manhandlers.
Trapped in his created web of lies, Nihar started living a miserable life but did not have enough courage to tell the truth.
It was when his friend arrived that the world came to know about the truth.
The unnecessary lie that created so much fuss in Nihar’s life was cherished by the audience. The script written by Anand Chandra Pati had some funny lines that tickled the bones of the audience. Haren Sahu knew the gospels of direction well and the entire play was brilliantly managed.
Actors Mrityunjay, Haren, Raghunath, Jyoti, Deepti, Prakash, Umesh and others deserve a standing ovation for their histrionics.
The audience seemed to share a relaxing time watching Full Tension.
“After a long time, I got to watch a play that is entirely based on comedy. It is always relaxing to watch comedy after a hard day’s work. Apart from the play I liked the title of the play very much. It’s very catchy,” said Satyendra, who was present in the audience.
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