AN INCIDENT AT THE BORDER Play Review

Le Chayim Productions' take on the British satirical play AN INCIDENT AT THE BORDER by Kieran Lynn, was staged at The Hive, the city's brand new alternate performance space. The plot is straightforwardly absurd - the lively but slightly annoying Olivia and her jaded boyfriend Arthur are trying to pretend all is well in their crumbling relationship. As they sit on a park bench looking at a pond and trying to bear each other's company, an eccentric border security guard suddenly arrives and spreads barricade tape right across the middle of the bench and declares the boundary hence formed to be the brand new border line dividing two countries. Olivia and Arthur now find themselves in two different counties. This is the conflict in the play and the rest of the story maps the hilarious and ludicrous sequence of events as Olivia and Arthur negotiate with the guard to get Arthur back to their "country". The situation brings out the worst in the couple as they struggle to relate to each other while the cheerfully daft security guard embarks on his own journey of discovering the meaninglessness of his job as he blindly follows the orders of "George", his boss who he only ever communicates with through his walkie-talkie handset.



Like Beckett's WAITING FOR GODOT, this play is open-ended and playful enough not to be categorised as wholly political but there are plenty of jabs taken at the extremist state policy and random acts of authority which fail in staying relevant to everyday life and its realities. Director Himanshu Sitlani thankfully keeps with the subtlety and lightness of the wry English script, in the absence of which, the underlying theme of the bureaucratic arbitrariness can be a bit stale and tiresome and could possibly get frustrating.

The script has some solid punch lines and its share of chuckle some moments, and Dhruv Lohumi as the odd-ball guard Reiver manages to tickle the viewer with his character's utter lack of common sense and his absolute compliance with disastrous and glaringly counter-intuitive "orders from the top". The buffoon character is always a hit or miss, but Dhruv is able to fashion Reiver into a buffoon who is still winsome enough that you keep forgetting to hate his idiocy. Somewhere in the middle of the play, however, he begins to lose faith in his character and starts to sound a bit robotic, which make parts of the hour long play, seem stretched. Divya Unny manages to make the most out of Olivia, a character plagued with gender stereotyping and weak motive. Her timing is enjoyable as she brings an easygoing yet sardonic flavor to the cliched annoying girlfriend, but as the urgency of the play progresses she falters in conveying Olivia's rising exasperation with the situation.

Arthur (Divyang Thakkar) starts off on a good note as the gentle daydreaming sort who is like an ostrich burying his head deeper and deeper into the sand as things progressively gets worse around him. The chemistry between Olivia and Arthur is delightfully volatile to begin with but as Divyang's Arthur retreats more and more into his fantasy world, he distances himself from the larger plot a bit too much and we are left yearning for a stronger reasoning for his defiance and escapism than a mere sense of boredom.

Despite a shaky middle and a bumpy build, the show has good pace and manages to translate the witty and irreverent spirit of the play well enough. The script by Lynn leaves a lot to be desired in terms of character development and relatability; elements that are integral to any absurdist work in order to root it in its context and keep the audience connected. Director Himanshu Sitlani would also do well to spend more time bringing his cast on board with his specific interpretation of the parable, in order that they can lend greater passion and conviction to the performances.

*Saudamini Kalra is a student of theatre and occasionally a poet.