This is a good entertainer and ends the year on a high note, heralding the holiday season.
Published: 16th December 2023 08:46 AM | Last Updated: 16th December 2023 08:46 AM | A+A A-
Little Theatre’s pantomime, MIB: A Space Comet-y. (Photos | S Sireen)
CHENNAI : A wacky space adventure, a wholesome love story, a villain with classic evil laughter, and Men In Black agents — a fitting formula to wow any audience. Now, add satire, masala, and slow-action scenes. For those searching to laugh belly-fulls or scouring through the Internet for lessons on how to write humorous sci-fi, look no further than the Little Theatre’s pantomime, MIB: A Space Comet-y.
At Anna Centenary Library, the air is filled with festive cheer as parents and children groove to Christmas numbers like Eartha Kitt’s Santa Baby and Wham’s Last Christmas as they gear up for the group’s 27th pantomime. The tell-tale stage bell rings and the spotlight focuses on a Noodle shop where moustached noodle shop employee Momo (played by Roshni Suresh) nervously proposes to sparkly alien Mimi (Abhirami Rao). Cue the jazzy villain entry, as space pirates Gin and Tonic (played respectfully by Hari Shankar and Abhishek Thangamani) steal Momo’s token of love, a stardust ring, and kidnap Momo and his friend Tofu (Gophalan Murali). In a butterfly effect, this ring promises destruction to the galaxy as it holds the lifeforce to revive a dead Star aka our villain Ken (Chinmay) — donned in hot pink and extension, perhaps a hat-tip to Great Gerwig’s Ken from Barbie — who is out for revenge.
Whisked into an intergalactic journey, the pantomime follows the protagonists as they try to save Earth. Breaking the fourth wall and roping the audience to interact, jittery children squealed while even parents found themselves laughing at certain jokes planted into the clever script. With a cast of over 30 members, the play has a diverse crowd with the youngest around four years old and the oldest in their 30s.
Of love and difference
From slow fights, punch dialogues, and puns to actual punches, MIB is peppered with a world of pop-culture references from Naruto, and a dash of item songs from Mukabala and Leo’s Badass. The script is woven with Tamil jokes for namma Chennai audiences (For example, “You are an anomaly. Response: “Annamalai ah?”). The script proves that sci-fi and parody can co-exist with humour. For instance, Ken’s yearning to destroy Earth is rooted in the idea that humans unnecessarily use the word star, like in Hotstar and Star Plus. From Dame Peakboo (Santosh Kumar), armed with her seduction skills and dating stories, to Mimi’s machine best friend Beep Beep (Neelanjana) to emoticons who unlock memories, all the characters are a treat to watch.
However, the core of the pantomime focuses on the lesson that love prevails over all. As Mimi says, “Love will give you wings and make you fly, it’s the lack of love that drives you insane the universe could do a little love.”
Director Krishnakumar Balasubramanian (KK) says, “We wanted to talk about and celebrate differences. Aliens are nothing but if you show up in another country. We also wanted to explore sci-fi with MIB.” He explains that the plot was written after the actors began practicing in August. “Around 99% of the cast are amateurs and first-timers on stage. The idea was to put together passionate people. Once you understand the actors more, you find out your pop culture references. It’s about connecting to the people of the city, and these are the people of the city,” he says, adding that by the last show, the performance gets tighter and crisper as the actors learn how to work the audience and improvise better.
Aysha Rau, founder of The Little Theatre says that this pantomime is a tribute to her late father-in-law Professor U Bhaskar Rau, and chairperson of Apeejay Surrendra Group Shireen Pau. This is a good entertainer and ends the year on a high note, heralding the holiday season. We want to remember the innocent children lost in Gaza,” she shares, adding that the magic of the pantomime is all age groups can enjoy the show. As for the future, she hopes the museum theatre opens up for their next play.
A member of the audience, Nandhini Sridhar, a media consultant, says, it was a brilliant concept and whether you know references or not, audiences laugh it off. While Agents O and K (Sonali Rebekah and Shreya Reddy) flash their trusty memory-erasing neuralyser, telling us that this was all a pantomime, and aliens don’t exist, the show remains an unforgettable experience.
Catch the pantomime on December 16 and 17 at Anna Centenary Library Auditorium. Ticket link: https://thelittletheatre.explara.com/
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