What is Bengaluru about? It's about musicians, auto drivers, bartenders, actors, and the rest you'll know when you watch this play titled Bangalores.
Produced by multi talented Chris Avinash, the vocalist of Retronome, a cover band from the city, it's going to be showcased on November 23 and 24 at Jagriti in Whitefield.
Bangalores is a music concert within a play, where Retronome has collaborated with the theatre company, Tahatto. The play has been written by Badarivishal Kinhal and Prashanth Nair, and directed by the latter. “It is about seven strangers, who come together at a pub. There are no fancy lines. One of the seven is an auto driver, who speaks partial Kannada," says Chris. He says Prashanth Nairis a fantastic director who is easy to work with. He has directed and acted in several plays before.
Chris himself has been an actor in Romeo and Juliet, No strings Attached, a singer, and a director of musicals at schools, but this is his first time as a producer. “I wanted to explore theatre as a business, because I believe it's a good growth area," he says. He adds that Bangalores is a one of a kind play, saying, “There have been bands that have played at musicals or in the background, but they have never been used as a device in plays. Besides, Retronome plays only covers and I assure you, the audience will know everyone of our songs, so I'm expecting them to be entertained," he says.
They're going to be covering around ten songs, by Pink Floyd, Coldplay, Frank Sinatra, Adele and more.
He believes theatre today caters to an intellectual crowd and that there are very few plays in the regional language. “With my production, I hope to change the format of the plays and make them more accessible to common man."
Incidentally, he also plans to write Kannada music since he has already ventured into Bollywood. Chris jokes that since he's doing too many things, he might end up having a multiple personality disorder! Despite being all over the place, this performer believes that the play has enough meat in it to keep every viewer glued.
