jabberwocky

Nothing can better the pleasure of watching a play in a packed auditorium, filled with people and bursting at the seams. Foreign Theatre companies have an edge over local companies, something like aspirational value makes everyone come running to watch the firangs. Coming back to the play. The plot might be familiar but the treatment is very different. Two soldiers find themselves ship wrecked in the middle of the sea with nothing but a wooden roof of perhaps a long-submerged house to hang onto. While one speaks English(it is his side that we follow) the other speaks a language that neither the fellow soldier nor the audience comprehends. Distrust, prejudice and a generally lack of wanting to understand drives the two to fight several times and the one upmanship continues, till they get tired and decide to cooperate and find a solution to the problem on hand. The camaraderie and frienship that develops between the two forms the crux of the ending when they realise that they need to travel in opposite direction to their individual homes, even though they had built just one raft as a team. Robinson and Crusoe proves what most Modern Indian Theatre directors have been saying for while now. Language is immaterial. You dont'have to understand words-finally you need to feel. And for two people who want to understand each other will not have to rely on words. Without being activist(its a childrens play remember) the play address all the problems we face in the world today. The animosity that exists between the American block and the third world countries.. the need for homogeniety felt by certain countries. Coming from Germany, a country that has had to deal with nazi ism and the effects of the nazi regime, it was great.
The play begins as you step into the theatre, though there is no preset or background music. The performance area is awash with blue, the background, the wings, the stage, everything is a bright and clear blue. In the middle of the stage is a wooden structure--and... i'm tired of writing reviews.. this is the third i'm writing.. enough. this review will remain unfinished. the ending of the review is in its matter.. he who seeks shall find.