Peruvian connection

THE LOYOLA Theatre Society (LTS) play this year would stand out for reasons more than one. Never mind the two-and-half hour long duration of ``The Royal Hunt of the Sun'', a Peter Shaffer play on the conquest of Peru and the fall of the Inca empire. Or the lack of ``comic relief'' at Museum Theatre over three evenings from Friday.

Here are a few reasons why you should have watched the LTS play this year:

1. ``How long will you keep watching comedies?''. Or so asks Michael Muthu, who has directed his 12th play for the LTS. It was the desire to break away from the routine and do something as challenging as a serious period drama that set the stage for the ``Royal Hunt...''

2. ``Lets give everybody a chance''. Given the scale and scope of the historical, here was a chance for more people to be recognised and more scope for acting compared to the plays LTS has been churning out in the last few years. The LTS play this year had 38 artistes.

3. ``Oh Wow! At least half of them were brilliant, the others not bad at all''. Arjun Janakiram as the narrator Martin Ruiz did his bit like a seasoned pro. Sameer Khalili as Francisco Pizzaro might have had a nightmare learning his lines that ran into pages and pages, but carried off the lead role with pizzazz. So did the younger Martin Ruiz Khurram Hussain and Atahualpa (George Mathew Philip). Even those doing roles with fewer dialogues shone.

4. ``Dhinchak sound''. The credit for that haunting sound design inspired by the play goes to Arjun Janakiram and the Terribly Serious Company.

5. ``Naach gaana dance waance''. John Britto's dancers from Artworx chipped in wonderfully to provide relief to the otherwise dialogue-filled play. Choreography certainly noteworthy.

5. ``These guys grew their stubble for over 20 days''. The President Siddharth Hemdev reveals that the guys have been working on the look ever since the rehearsals started. Interestingly, only four final rehearsals with full cast!

6. ``Never mind the Woodland-model shoes, but given the complexity of the production requirements, they did an amazing job for amateurs''. Simple calculation: Multiply 38 artistes into costumes and props. Now consider, it was done in 20 days.

By Sudhish Kamath

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