Old world charm

Get ready to experience some enthralling performances as Pierrot’s Troupe is on a performing spree. They will be staging some classic plays in the Capital. The latest one from the troupe is Chacha Chakkan In Action, a humorous reflection of life in and around us which will be staged at Shri Ram Centre on May 2. Written by Qudsiya Zaidi, the play revolves around the quirky misadventures of ‘one and only’ Lucknow-born Aligarh-bred Chacha Chakkan BA LLB. 

It begins with Chacha Chakkan’s chaotic search, one not so fine morning, for his lost ‘eyeglasses’ while sporting the same. By afternoon, he decides to take care of his ailing son to mess it up with giving wrong doses of medicine to the latter. Not discouraged by his idiocy, he, in the evening, decides to take from his wife the job of giving out dirty clothes to the washerwoman: He, this time, ends up with giving away his wife’s gold studded silk shirt.

In the process, the play showcases 24 hours in Chacha’s life. However, in the garb of humor and satire, this stylish play by Qudsiya Zaidi beautifully captures the socio – cultural milieu of our country in 1960s.

The next play to be staged on May 17 at the same venue is Ghalib In New Delhi. Directed by M Sayeed Alam, this rip-roaring comedy has the great erstwhile Urdu poet, Mirza Ghalib, revisiting his beloved ‘Dehli’, now ironically ‘Delhi’, in 2015 to witness and relish his posthumous fame. The play deals with Mirza Ghalib’s re-birth in 21st century New Delhi, highlighting his trials, travails and tribulations — from his second birth at the ISBT in Delhi to staying in a Servant Quarterwith a University student from Patna (with the land lady being a Punjaban) to becoming a Page-3 celebrity.

The next play to be staged at Sri Ram Centre is Maulana Azad which will be staged on June 17. It is the first ever play on Maulana Azad encompassing his life, his times, his scholarship, his secular credentials a great deal. 

Maulana’s narrative includes numerous entertaining anecdotes and memoirs characterising his life, personality, thoughts and scholarship. Maulana’s personal relations with Gandhi Ji Nehru, Patel and Jinnah also come under the review in the course of the play. 

Performed brilliantly by Tom Alter, the play has been rightly billed as the biggest casting coup in the history of Indian theatre.