Whirlwind theatre production hits city

Eight playwrights premiere their new short productions at Comedy Store today in Super 8.

Tonight, theatregoers may find Hitler sharing stage space with teenagers in a yoghurt shop. And the space in question will traverse everywhere between call centres in New York to lovers at Bandra’s Bandstand.

Putting together a selection of eight short plays for his latest theatrical production, titled Super 8, Akarsh Khurana, founder of Akvarious Productions says, “The stories are so varied. The unifying factor is that they’re all humourous. It may be macabre, sarcastic, witty, slapstick or a mix of all.”

Each piece has been penned by award-winning writers, including Aristos Award-winning writer, Susan Cinoman, city talents like Apoorva Kale and Siddharth Kumar as well as New York playwright Michael Puzzo (and no, he is not related to Mario Puzzo or has anything to do with The Godfather) “Akvarious produced and directed a production of my play The Dirty Talk (aka A Guy Thing) and apparently it became a favourite with the Mumbai audience. I am still surprised and tickled that my work, (which I consider to be so specific to not only America, but to my home state of New Jersey) seems to translate so well in India,” says Puzzo. About his short piece, My Soul, The Pavement that will be showcased this time, he says, “As with most of my writing, it’s a young adult comedy based on everything that has ever happened to me, yet none of it is actually true.”

The duration of each play ranges from five minutes to 20 minutes. “The sets are minimalistic, so it wasn’t so hard for us. The challenge for the actors will be changing roles with every production through the 90-minute show,” says Khurana.