Ways of the wicked
BY WILLY GOES
“Arso zavn tum mhojem chitr mhaka dakoinakai. To arso foddun churo kortolom.”
Arso foddun churo kortolo zalear ugddas dor, tea arxeacheo kovnvcheo… so went the effective dialogues of the tiatr ‘Besaum’ staged at the 36thTiatr Competition at Kala Academy.
‘Besaum’ is a well written script, packed with meaningful dialogues and a tolerable storyline.
The tiatr begins with a court scene where Edward (Manu Barracho) is falsely implicated and convicted for the murder of Niclaus, and is sentenced to life imprisonment. Helpless Edward turns violent and even curses the judge and accuses him of corruption. Then begins the flashback. Judas (Anthony Gonsalves) who is the real murderer is rich, influential and lustful. He has his eyes on Edward’s fiancée Virginia (Effie Fernandes) and sister Flavia (Jenifer D’Souza). He uses his money power to lure Virginia’s father to marry her, but leaves her when she gets pregnant. He also tries to woo Flavia who slaps him. He takes revenge by raping her. In a fit of anger, Edward confronts Judas at his residence, and after a heated verbal duel, Judas pulls out a gun and shoots at Edward, but Niclaus, who was present at that moment steps in between the bullet and Edward and is killed. Judas, through his evil designs plants a bag containing money in Edward’s house, and puts the blame on Edward. Albert (Francis Mendes) who was betrothed to Flavia decides to marry her in spite of the blemish. And just as Flavia, dressed in her wedding gown, is about to leave for the nuptials, the police arrest Edward and Edward gives Flavia his ‘besaum’ (blessing) and hence the title of the tiatr ‘Besaum.’
Even though the opening scene did not have the required punch, the tiatr starts off well with impressive performances, especially by Anthony de Siolim and Manu Barracho. Seby de Quepem as Edward’s disabled brother Desmond too plays his role well. Hortencio Pereira handles the comedy single handedly, but the goof-ups generate more laughter, especially towards the end of the tiatr, where the frequency of errors amplified gradually and reached a crescendo.
Baring the dawdling opening scene, the act starts on a good pace with Anthony and Manu adding dramatic moments with their well played roles, but as the tiatr progresses, there was a slackening in the pace of the story, and monotony begins to set in. Towards the end the glaring mistakes reach an unforgiving peak and the audience was heard passing nasty comments.
‘A good story, but badly finished.’ One person in the audience was heard saying as he left the auditorium. Swetlana Coelho executed the opening act of the clown impressively. The duo by Hortencio Pereira and Manuel Colaco was meaningful and had a message. The quartet ‘Belgaumkar’ by Selvin Fernandes, Anthony Gonsalves Pedro Fernandes and Anthony Mascarenhas was quite entertaining. Cristo Periera, Michael Fernandes and Filip Fernandes sang the other kantarams.
