After an uncharacteristic hiatus, Kolkata’s most prolific English-language troupe, Theatrecian, came back with a double-decker bang (to catch the pun, skip to the last paragraph). Founder Tathagata Chowdhury having moved out of town to make his living, as well as expand Theatrecian’s activities outside, two of his experienced deputies took over the vacant directorial chair on two plays from the 1950s: 12 Angry Men and Verdict.
Apratim Chatterjee returned to their tried-and-tested jury drama, Indianizing Reginald Rose’s teleplay-turned-stage play that Tathagata had directed two versions of in times gone by: the gender-parity 12 Angry Jurors and the all-female 12 Angry Women. Taking his cue from the latter, which used the script to initiate high-school leavers into the art of theatre, Apratim repeated the method for young men of the same age. This serves an important function by introducing a new generation to the magic of the stage, in the hope that some of them stay on in future. He edited the text much more than necessary, but otherwise directed the dozen in diversified portraits.
The biggest, insoluble, twin mystery about Agatha Christie’s The Verdict is why she wrote it and liked it so much. The audience at its West End premiere had even booed! In a review long ago, I had commented that it “does not qualify as a thriller, suspense drama, detective story or murder mystery—there is no mystery about the murder, which occurs in front of our eyes.” Thus, Aaron Targain chose wrong, and tried to gloss over its blemishes with fashion-show lights and sound, but what can you do in a play where the villainess conveniently dies when hit by a London bus? Zahid Hossain acts the professor devoted to his invalid wife with commendable reserve, but the rest of the cast is uneven, some of them lacking articulation or speeding through dialogue like the killer bus.
16 April 2025