A case of mistaken identities

Watch out for comedy a la Shakespeare this week. On stage is The Urge, a production by Aamir Raza Husain’s theatre group, Stagedoor, which traces the story of a poor chorus girl who becomes a star, an understudy who becomes a lead and a stage hand who becomes a star.

Watch out for comedy a la Shakespeare this week. On stage is The Urge, a production by Aamir Raza Husain’s theatre group, Stagedoor, which traces the story of a poor chorus girl who becomes a star, an understudy who becomes a lead and a stage hand who becomes a star.

The production is a take-off from Shakespeare’s play A Comedy of Errors — which plays on the idea of mistaken identities to create comic circumstances. But you don’t really need to know about the original play to understand the story. “The play is a comedy. It’s not any great memorable act of philosophy, just a great fun evening,” says Husain, the creative director of the play.

The seven-member cast includes Husain, his wife and co-director of the play Virat Husain, Radhika Mitra and others. They have performed the play in Kochi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. According to Husain, Stagedoor has held over 100 productions so far, but this play is special because “it’s probably a shade more difficult to do a comedy.”