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Original play with local twist
Four Play, an adaptation of a hit British comedy, will be staged in the city on Sunday.Vandana Sajnani Khattar play is based on the classic British play, Move Over Mrs Markham.
Theatre actor-producer-director Vandana Sajnani Khattar has being actively doing theatre for a decade now. She is all set to stage her latest offering,
Four Play
, by her own production house on October 31.
The play is based on the classic British play, Move
Over Mrs Markham
, by Ray Cooney and John Chapman. Vandana boasts of being one of the very few people to take the copyrights from the original writers. “We couldn’t stick to the original screenplay because it wouldn’t appeal to Indian audiences. You need to infuse local flavours. That was the reason why I changed the title of the play and also acquired the copyrights,” she says.
A comedy of errors,
Four Play
is about mistaken identities. A couple unknowingly lets their friends borrow their apartment. The friends bring in their respective partners for a romantic evening and chaos ensues.
The cast includes Payal Rohatgi, Rajesh Khattar, Gaurav Chopra, Mouni Roy, Akshay Kapoor, Cyndy Khojol, Nikhil Dewan, Pinky Issrani and Vandana herself.
Sherlyn Chopra was supposed to be a part of the play, but she dropped out eventually. Rohatgi now makes her stage debut with this play. Vandana says, “It does help when you have a famous cast. People love to see their favourite soap and film stars on stage,” adding that
Four Play
will tour the US, Canada, Dubai, Hong Kong and Colombo, after a stint in major Indian cities.
Vandana says, “I do it all by myself, from the cast, to getting sponsors, to writing and directing the play. But I love it!” Her earlier plays include
Please Divorce Me Darling
,
Love Hua Once More
,
Beauty Brains & Personality
,
Perfect Wedding and Perfect Divorce
. Ask her about her obsession with comedy and she laughs, “I was tired of all the
rona-dhona
(melodrama) in serials and the tragic Meena Kumari-type roles early in my career on stage. So I decided to only do comedies,” she says.
