Ajay Krishnan and Harami Theatre's journey began with BUTTER AND MASHED BANANA at Thespo in 2005. The play was selected for Thespo's final five staging at Prithvi theatre. Since then the group hasn't looked back. The play went on to win five awards at the festival, it performed over fifty shows across the country, got invited to several prestigious festivals like Kala Ghoda and Prithvi, and has struck a chord with many theatre lovers. When the group announced their final shows in Mumbai at Prithvi Theatre on 14th and 15th June 2011, there was a sense of disappointment in the theatre fraternity, as it brought to an end a successful journey. No wonder both shows at Prithvi had a packed house on weekdays. The play was given a grand send- off. It is one of those rare plays, which was acclaimed by critics and became immensely popular among the young theatre audiences in Mumbai and in Bangalore, its home city.

The reasons for its success are easy to understand when one watches the play. It is a satire on censorship, politics and more importantly the hollowness of the individual himself. It begins with an unborn child talking about the difficulty of being born to a rightist father and a leftist-feminist mother.

The child is so confused that he is almost reluctant to be born. Later the child grows to become a world renowned author. But he faces extreme opposition to anything he tries to say or do in his country. He enters politics as a last resort to fight for his right to freedom of speech and expression. However, all his attempts are in vain.

Ajay Krishnan uses a raw and minimalistic form to tell his story. Both in writing and direction, the spoken word holds more importance. There are three actors- two of them play a variety of roles, while the third is the protagonist. Using music, rhythm and basic body movement and gestures, the performers focus on the content they want to communicate. There is no formal set. A bucket and a white cloth are used innovatively as props. The entire play is performed under general lights and Ajay Krishnan plays the guitar to support the songs sung by the actors. The script is simple and very well composed. While speaking about censorship not once does the writer gets instructive or loses his humour. He mocks at the futile authoritative control, which indirectly acts as an oppressive tool to govern the people and instil a constant fear in their minds against asking questions. While doing so the play questions the sensibility of contemporary society to ask the right questions. The treatment is subtle and humorous.

The original cast had Arjun Shankar, Nakul Krishna and Ajay Krishnan playing the three parts. They were then replaced by Gulshan Devaiah, Vinod Ravindran and Vivek Madan. All the performers complement each other well and contribute largely to the success of the play. They do a fabulous job as they move around swiftly, speak with the right intonations, sing in tune and mean what they are saying. Their inherent sensibility adds to the effectiveness of the play.

BUTTER AND MASHED BANANA is a play that laid the foundation for Ajay Krishnan and his theatre group. It has had a long and successful run in several cities of India like Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Pondicherry, and others. The play will be remembered for Ajay Krishnan's meaningful writing, the rawness of the production and its enjoyable performances.

Cast and Crew:

Written and Directed: by Ajay Krishnan

Language: English

Duration: 1 hour, 05 minutes. No interval

Music: Ajay Krishnan (Live)

Cast: Gulshan Devaiah, Vinod Ravindran, Vivek Madan

Lights: Sujay Saple

Produced by: Nimi Ravindran

Highlights:

• Invited to perform at the Mumbai Kala Ghoda Festival


• Performance on invitation at Adishakti in Pondicherry


• Invited to perform at the Prithvi Theatre Festival in November 2006


• Performance on invitation at The Mood Indigo festival at IIT, Powai


• Invited to perform at the JUHU festival, Mumbai.


• Performed on invitation at the Open Space festival 'Himmat' in Pune


• Performance on invitation at IIMB, Bangalore