‘The President is Coming’
My friend Anuvab Pal’s new comedy The President is Coming is premiering at the Writers’ Bloc festival in Bombay next week. An unnamed dim bulb of an American president is coming to India. The local embassy is winnowing down MBA students in an Indian Idol-like contest to meet the man and shake his hand.
I can only hope the president in question is Dubya, because if it were Clinton the title would mean something entirely different. I’ve been to a reading, it’s peppered through with one-liners and very funny. It’s like Waiting for Godot, minus the hopelessness, absurdist tragicomedy and nihilism, and set in India. Other than that, it’s exactly like Godot 
The 11 writers… have been through intensive boot camps with playwrights… from the Royal Court Theatre in London… The final scripts were then matched to production houses… “The main difference between the festival in 2004 and this one is that the average age has gone down. 60 per cent of the playwrights are below the age of 28. Also, last time we had 40 entries, this time the number was 98…” Actors are all paid about Rs. 500 per show… [Link]
Anuvab said he does experimental theater for the phat money. He told me he had a crucial role that he needed my help with. I began brushing up on my impression of a romantic heeero, blow-drying my quiff, sleeping in a steam room to keep the vocal chords moist. Dreams of Shammi Kapoor stardom came dancing through my head. Soon afterwards I came to know that the role was for an extra. Crushed, the next time I bought him a beer I added my ’secret sauce.’ Congratulations, said my theater guru, you’ve now comprehended the cycle of poverty, desperation and pettiness that is acting in Bombay.
Showtimes are Thursday, Jan. 18, 6 and 9pm at Prithvi Theatre, and Sunday, Jan. 28, 7 pm at NCPA Experimental. Here’s a full list of plays at the festival. Do come if you’re in Bombay.
on Friday, January 12th, 2007, 6:22 pm in Bombay, Events, Humor, Theater › 
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I remember reading about his play “choas”on ur vij website, that was a very interesting read and was very well written and thought provoking
this one sounds interesting too..
In india they tend to play the same old plays like “devdas” etc., again and again, so I stopped going for plays when I was in India. I remember in 80s there were some creative communist plays on streets in west bengal where people experimented with new themes..Iam glad the trend is changing…Either Bush or Clinton would be interesting..best of luck with ur acting..shammi meeting Bush or Clinton would be interesting too..
BTW since u are into writing Manish thought this writing contest might interest u. check these websites…
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976881780
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976881664
http://www.gather.com/first%20chapters
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976881959
grrr went to buy tix for 9pm show thur and sold out.
6pm is avail but I am not…..
Dissenter, 100 tix will be available the day of the show.
They have held 100 tickets back for the 9 pm. They will start selling them at 7.30. If you have any problem, let me know. We will accomodate all friends of Ultrabrown. Thanks, Anuvab Pal
“…An unnamed dim bulb of an American president is coming to India….I can only hope the president in question is Dubya”
Nice.
This “dim bulb” is the president who, early in his administration, made a point of vastly improving relations between India and the US. This comes after decades of US tilting towards Pakistan. Dubya spent a lot of political capital getting the nuclear agreement with India passed in Congress.