Humor Me's satire 'Dinner for Pricks' brings Broadway to your doorstep
Humor Me's high-society satire 'Dinner for Pricks' brings Broadway to your doorstep.
Oddball characters and a witty script make Dinner for Pricks a ready reckoner.
Till a little while ago, theatre was a badge the elite wore on whim. Tiptoeing in and out of ageing auditoriums, the kurta-and-jeans clad folk were in search of storylines that didn't touch 'dancing around trees' with a barge pole. Let's face it, however parallel it strove to be, the Indian theatre experience was clich in its own right, and wrong. So, one fine day, a bunch of 20 somethings decided to rip it off its condescending vibe and make it a thing of entertainment. And the rest is Humor Me's history.
Supper theatre is a dictionary term, but how about its finer variant with reserve wine, blue cheese, Riesling grapes, and some crme crackers on the side? At Dinner for Pricks, the audience is part of Le Cigare Volant, a pop-up French restaurant that serves as a backdrop for a satire on high-society specimens. The stage has dropped its fourth wall and received the audience inside the scene. Round tables draped in silk upholstery, and silver spoons chiming against precious china, viewers are kept busy by the wait-staff before the bearded half-French waiter Henry (Clifford Afonso) makes an appearance. A crooner of Fitzgerald classics, this know-it-all storyteller is the only marginally classy element in the play, the rest of the characters though, fail trying. And, that's where the humour lies. In all his directional flair, Dhruv Sachdeva pricks on elite stereotypes. His needles are his well-sketched out characters that aren't too sharp on the senses and don't get lost in haystacks either.
The story weaves together three social situations. The first one finds two couples settling their children's dispute; of course, they employ their knowledge of sophisticated etiquette to keep things civil and neat. The Khattars would have been ordering extra garlic naans someplace nosier had Dheeraj Khattar(Karam Vir Lamba) not inherited this French restaurant from a long lost aunt. You'll guess this when there's more than one mention to his bridal garment shops in Karol Bagh. Rita Khatter(Vidushi Mehra) also could have been the sort who honeymooned on a foreign beach wearing 'chudas' and earned Facebook comments from the other 'moneyed hence married' friends. But she keeps herself busy as a Yamuna activist and brings her activism into her son Lovely's life very animatedly. Her escape from the stereotype sketch is refreshing. She's barking up the wrong tree though. The Lals are more schooled with the ways of the elite. While Mrs Nina Lal (Kriti Pant), is a suited work-lady of lah-di-dah variety; Arjun Lal (Dhruv Sachdeva) is a famous corporate lawyer, who doesn't find a breather between distress calls from his clients.
The table next to this one seats a sinister-minister and his PVT. Kulbhushan Prasad (Farhad Colabavala) is a gold-chain-and-aviator wearing brash young mantri, exactly the sort who makes you question democracy. His arm candy also makes you question democracy, why does everybody have the darn right to do and talk as they please? Dressed in a hot-pink pleated dress, Rakhi Sharma (Kavya Trehan) is earsplittingly shrill and finds it necessary to use 'like' after every word.
Table No. 3 is where things get seriously funny. Dixie Singh (Shantanu Anam) is a rich sardaar entrepreneur who likes his whisky 'on a rock' and has managed to find love in his secretary, now 'fionz' Leezu (Mallika Dua). Her Punjabi-British accent, gives Shoaib Akhtars' a run for its money. In her ever so intriguing mind, the real way to master a language is to come up with one's own words, 'peeps' for people and 'fresto' for frustrated are a few literary marvels she spews out. Of course, there are acronyms like U.S.A (excuse the NRI-Punjabi link), that translates into Under Skirt Area.
The script moves around effortlessly through the sub-plots, and finally lands the oddballs onto one table in a crazy climax. The musical interludes, witty one-liners and talented performers who manage to lend newness to social stereotypes; Dinner for Pricks amuses, astonishes and appeals to all and sundry. Until Le Cigare Volant opens its fictional doors to yet another story and yet another audience, there's much reason to anticipate.
Supper theatre is a dictionary term, but how about its finer variant with reserve wine, blue cheese, Riesling grapes, and some crme crackers on the side? At Dinner for Pricks, the audience is part of Le Cigare Volant, a pop-up French restaurant that serves as a backdrop for a satire on high-society specimens. The stage has dropped its fourth wall and received the audience inside the scene. Round tables draped in silk upholstery, and silver spoons chiming against precious china, viewers are kept busy by the wait-staff before the bearded half-French waiter Henry (Clifford Afonso) makes an appearance. A crooner of Fitzgerald classics, this know-it-all storyteller is the only marginally classy element in the play, the rest of the characters though, fail trying. And, that's where the humour lies. In all his directional flair, Dhruv Sachdeva pricks on elite stereotypes. His needles are his well-sketched out characters that aren't too sharp on the senses and don't get lost in haystacks either.
The story weaves together three social situations. The first one finds two couples settling their children's dispute; of course, they employ their knowledge of sophisticated etiquette to keep things civil and neat. The Khattars would have been ordering extra garlic naans someplace nosier had Dheeraj Khattar(Karam Vir Lamba) not inherited this French restaurant from a long lost aunt. You'll guess this when there's more than one mention to his bridal garment shops in Karol Bagh. Rita Khatter(Vidushi Mehra) also could have been the sort who honeymooned on a foreign beach wearing 'chudas' and earned Facebook comments from the other 'moneyed hence married' friends. But she keeps herself busy as a Yamuna activist and brings her activism into her son Lovely's life very animatedly. Her escape from the stereotype sketch is refreshing. She's barking up the wrong tree though. The Lals are more schooled with the ways of the elite. While Mrs Nina Lal (Kriti Pant), is a suited work-lady of lah-di-dah variety; Arjun Lal (Dhruv Sachdeva) is a famous corporate lawyer, who doesn't find a breather between distress calls from his clients.
The table next to this one seats a sinister-minister and his PVT. Kulbhushan Prasad (Farhad Colabavala) is a gold-chain-and-aviator wearing brash young mantri, exactly the sort who makes you question democracy. His arm candy also makes you question democracy, why does everybody have the darn right to do and talk as they please? Dressed in a hot-pink pleated dress, Rakhi Sharma (Kavya Trehan) is earsplittingly shrill and finds it necessary to use 'like' after every word.
Table No. 3 is where things get seriously funny. Dixie Singh (Shantanu Anam) is a rich sardaar entrepreneur who likes his whisky 'on a rock' and has managed to find love in his secretary, now 'fionz' Leezu (Mallika Dua). Her Punjabi-British accent, gives Shoaib Akhtars' a run for its money. In her ever so intriguing mind, the real way to master a language is to come up with one's own words, 'peeps' for people and 'fresto' for frustrated are a few literary marvels she spews out. Of course, there are acronyms like U.S.A (excuse the NRI-Punjabi link), that translates into Under Skirt Area.
The script moves around effortlessly through the sub-plots, and finally lands the oddballs onto one table in a crazy climax. The musical interludes, witty one-liners and talented performers who manage to lend newness to social stereotypes; Dinner for Pricks amuses, astonishes and appeals to all and sundry. Until Le Cigare Volant opens its fictional doors to yet another story and yet another audience, there's much reason to anticipate.
