Written and Directed : Vishesh Arora & Avitra Parekh Cast : Vishesh Arora, Avirat Parekh, Tanay Aul, Rashi Mistry, Riya Jana, Nikie B
DONT PANIC ITS ORGANIC Review
Don't Panic It's Organic is a collection of 30 plays, performed within a deadline of sixty minutes. Several of these plays are very short and thus, it ends well within the time frame. The plays have titles such as Title, Small Talk, Democracy,Give and Take, The Act of Acting, Macbeath, An Apology and others. The play is created keeping in mind the short attention span of today's audience. The audience has to choose what play they want each time a play ends. The play number the most vocal ones choose, gets performed at that time.
Vishesh Arora and Avirat Parekh have put together a thoughtful piece of work. Time flies and the audience never gets a chance to be bored. It is interactive and the audience gets to participate a little. The writing is good in terms of the variety of subjects and there isn't anything that will prevent it from getting bigger audiences. Each of the plays has varying approach. Some are commentaries such as Democracy. Some are performed like a comedy sketch. Some, like An Apology, is a single actor expressing a situation. Some are interactive, with one resulting in matchmaking amongst audience.
The play tests the actors to the hilt. There is surely no room for amateurs in this setup where there is a lot of bold writing, high adrenaline tempo, need to adapt to audience responses and continuous chaos. The directors have done a good job of finding the right people for the right job. Amongst them, Rashi Mistry stands out. She has the audience spellbound when she performs, 'An Apology'. She goes beyond what training and rehearsals can achieve.
With very edgy humour, sexuality and political incorrectness, the play may be better suited for an elite, English-speaking audience, and may cause a mild controversy if placed in front of a conservative crowd.
This can be considered a piece of work well worth the time of writers and directors. The techniques are relevant to contemporary times. The casting is also well done, with each of the actors having a distinct flavour. It is action-packed and interactive, which is what audiences thirst for and one reason, they choose theatre over films.
