When Munshi Premchand comes calling, you don’t find an excuse, you find a way. Amidst traffic mayhem and a cab strike, somehow the audience, on a weekday, found its way to the enactment of Premchand’s gem Lottery.
Presented by Rangeen Sapnay Theatre and directed by Surendra, Lottery is a story of a village where everyone is busy building their castles on clouds.
Two friends Sohan and Vikram, played by Rohit and Vikram, buy a lottery ticket and have already spent the prize money in their heads. So much so that they are even borrowing money from each other’s non-existent shares. On the other hand, the Thakur brothers, played by Ankit and Vidyasagar, have also bought a bunch of tickets and their loving brotherhood is shred to pieces in minutes owing to a fight over the prize money. People are getting hurt following superstitions and are ready to spend a fortune in court fees to register their fictitious shares. The scene where a young man comes battered and bruised by a stone-pelting lunatic Jhakkad Baba, in the hope that getting hit by the divine stone will win him the lottery was hilarious. It all culminates into them realising that none of them won and the chances of them ever winning is slim to nothing.
The team of actors were all debutantes, which is always a good sign for the local theatre scene. While they all did a good job for first timers, there were a few places they might think of concentrating more. Vikram’s diction was a bit hard to understand as he was rushing through his lines. Also, Ankit had a mortified look on the face throughout, regardless of the emotion of the scene. The final scene of the play is such a hilarious comic culmination that I don’t want to spoil it for people who might want to catch the second show which is on the 13th. If you didn’t make it on Friday, you still have a chance to have a good laugh.
