"The art and science of mating" is the tagline for MARRIAGE-OLOGY. Staged at Avenue 29, an alternative performance space, the play was preceded by a short introduction by Sunil Shanbag, one of the directors. He spoke of the trials and tribulations, as well as the small mercies that go hand in hand with the making of a play in Mumbai.
The play, which in Shanbag's words, boasts a cast of "veterans as well as first-timers'', is an exuberant line-up of shorts based on eight, strictly heterosexual marriages, that span cultures, dialects and age. The performances are sharp and thanks to the intelligent direction (Sunil has co-directed this production with Sapan Saran), there is a likeable evenness throughout the show even as we travel through nations, and move from themes of political strife to socio-economic undertones to cute poetic banter.
The very start of the show however turned out to be its weaker point, with a dramatisation of the artist Pink's banal song "True Love", in the voices of a musician couple who have just had a non-descript bickering match offstage, as well as an unidentified third-party who is mysteriously involved without any dog in the fight. But anxieties were soon allayed with the following pieces that proved to be more substantial.
'Nok Jhonk', based on the Daccani Urdu performance poetry form by Munnawar Ali and Himayatulla, stood out for its lyrical charm. Without so much as a basic grasp of Urdu, one can still enjoy this witty ping-pong match of poetic repartee between a gentle, ribbing husband and his charming, razor-tongued Begum. Both Imran Rashid and Nisha Dhar were a pleasure to watch as the husband and wife and supported each other's performance with a lot of grace. The musical poetry of the language, especially heard in the honey-and-sandpaper voice of Rashid, was captivating.
Sapan Sharan was memorable as the longing viraha-struck wife in a long-distance marriage in 'Biwi Ka Khat Shauhar Ke Naam' written by Shafiq Ur Rahman. 'Churchgate Couple', a piece penned by Saran follows. Her characters are moving and engaging and the lines leave an impression. Shivam Sharma plays the good-natured husband who works as a dubbing artist for The Discovery Channel, and shares his modest one room-kitchen home with not only his wife (Avantika Ganguly), but also with a dozen or so other family members. As they meet everyday like college sweethearts at the Churchgate railway station for some privacy during their lunch breaks, they sometimes joke and sometimes seriously contemplate the various ways to be by themselves. Ganguly delivered a grounded performance as a faux-coy, youthful working-class wife.
The performance of the evening was delivered by one of the veterans, Shishir Sharma, as he sat leaning slightly forwards on a bench and delivered the stunning words of Gabriel Garcia Marquez (an excerpt selected from Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera. His nonchalance and his no-hassle, grandfatherly telling of the story of a four month long cold war between the haughty Fermina Daza and her husband Dr Urbino over whether or not there had been soap in the bathroom feels as if Mr Sharma was a close personal friend of the couple.
Shanbag himself donned the actor's cap for a loud and vicious boxing-match with a ferocious Natasha Sing in Dario Fo's OPEN COUPLE, a brilliant comedy about the politics of an open marriage. It's a riot in which all gloves come off as the duo pick and prod each other. Nonetheless, things didn't go beyond the facade of the farce to reveal the real skin and bones of the characters.
The show has a near ideal length, calculated performances and strong writers with a great hold on different dialects and styles. Even though it can seem like a syrupy, tangy affair, far from the moody, Richard Yates-like picture of marriage, MARRIAGE-OLOGY manages to be both telling and entertaining.
*Saudamini Kalra is a student of theatre and occasionally a poet.
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