Last week we caught the first show of a new play called Chaos Theory, penned by the same scriptwriter as The President Is Coming. I liked TPIC and have, in fact, have seen it twice, the first time because my friend did the lighting.
The second time, because I wanted to see if they had finetuned their act, and as it turns out, they had.
Now, there’s a movie on the anvil with Bollywood actress Konkona Sen replacing one of the lead actors who in fact did a sturdy job with the role. The rest of the cast remains the same, except for one more character. But such is lifes dearies (as Honey, HT’s fictitious columnist gossip columnist of Under Honey’s Hat would proclaim).
CT is a love story, essentially. This brand of love is a little self-destructive and seems to stay with the two protagonists for an eternity. Yet, it’s never experienced in its full glory (what a waste!) because one party is too cynical and cowardly to risk being hurt, and the other aspires for all things bourgeois (security, home, kids, et al) besides love. The script has flashes of wit and some entertaining performances by the supporting actors who mostly play the significant others of the two protagonists.
One’s a fanatic communist writer who can’t express himself, emotionally. The other is the original groupie who loves men from the intelligentsia, but who is not unintelligent herself. She’s also flighty. There’s a funny scene where the Communist reads a line from his book (or was it a chapter) titled My Samosa, Your Vagina (or something that effect). The audience laughed loudest at this juncture. Of course, it’s a little gimmicky, but at least there are references to real events through the 60’s and right into this century, which makes many of the scenes relevant and relatable.
There’s one BIG problem, though, in the scheme of things. The two protagonists who harbour a ‘love-at-first-sight-that’s-never-fully-requited’ sort of love, share a chemistry that’s as deep a puddle. There’s no intensity, no flashes of blazing chemistry, no intense moments of truth. So, that’s a bit of a damp squib. But on the whole, CT is fairly entertaining, and you will enjoy lots of laughs.
