Our Hindi theatre made interesting forays by Indianizing two plays from 18th-century Britain and 21st-century America. Even in the UK there are few takers today for Sheridan’s classic comedy of manners, The School for Scandal, because its elitist society hardly exists anymore. So Theatrecian has guts to take it up for their first crossover into Hindi (strictly speaking Hindustani), and debutant director Zahid Hossain even more guts to not just adapt its gossip-mongering world into contemporary social media, smartphones and trolling, but also to retain its full five acts and all its dramatis personae. Inevitably this leads to some slack scenes like the opening and slapstick cameos that have little relevance now, yet on the other hand he educates young actors by casting them, enabling them to learn from the experience.
The principals, whom Sheridan offset in pairs, receive the required contrasting portrayals respectively, from Yuvraj Surana and Ayush Mishra (the deceptive and honest Surface brothers), Shinjita Ghosh and Anushree Mitra (the crafty and virtuous leading ladies), and Taufeeq Ahmed and Raunaq Tater as the older men (the former worried about his young wife and the latter rich but disguised to test the Surfaces). The ostentatious scenic image projections show the influence of technical director Aaron Targain’s USP, its novelty now wearing off, as well as going out of control whenever the laptop operator messed up their order. Sheridan’s immortal screen-and-closet scene suffered from a very slapdash closet—surely Theatrecian can afford one resembling solid wood?
For Proscenium’s 0.22, adapter Sharabh Chatterjee locates Matthew C. Greene’s short murder mystery 160 North (the source of the telefilm Kasganj) in a Himalayan resort, but the script itself is faulty for various reasons. Why did nobody hear the rifle shot in such quiet environs? Why bring in a ghost who ultimately gives away nothing? Why employ the cliché of the genre that the least likely suspect is the killer, predictably reinforced by the fact that only they do not appear at the final interrogation?
On the plus side, Bindu Jaiswal directs tightly and gets differentiated suspicious characterizations from everyone, most superbly Anjum Rizvi (the intense caretaker), besides Arzoo Sajjad, Arvind Premchand, Ramsha Latif and Tejinder Mandhan (the other possible culprits), not to forget Sahir Siddiqui and Chatterjee (the police). Madan constructs a realistic set of the lobby with a backdrop of mountains outside, but poor lighting and stagehands scuttling behind throw their shadows on it, spoiling the beautiful effect.
(21 June 2026)