On Sat 2nd
March, in the evening, after my Shift in the Library had ended I hunted down
Bryan at More Café in the Mall. He was sitting on a sofa drinking espresso whilst
reading Wolf Hall and silently screaming Urbane Chic, or he would have if he
had been reading his book on his i-pad or a kindle and not a dog eared
paper back tome, but that is another chain of thought. I picked him up and we
confidently strolled into DUCTAC to get tickets for the all singing and dancing
grand finale of Dubai’s Short + Sweet Festival. They were SOLD OUT. I kid you
not. We went home tails between our legs missing out on the opportunity to see
the best of the best of the festival.
So it is all
over till next year. I loved it all.
I avoided, as much as I could, blogging about the productions. Now that it is all over I can rabbit on a bit.
I have taken
the info from each play from the Short and Sweet Organizations web page so
click here if you want full details: Top 20
I must I confess ,straight up, that I was
especially rooting for the locally written productions simply because it
is so very hard to write material to perform that I just had to mentally
cheer those productions on. I was moved by Arjun Burman’s “Cold Call” he wrote
and acted in a sad twist of irony play. I mentioned “Yeki Bood / Yeki Na Bood”
in my last blog. A Comfortably put together play
that was a delight to watch. In no small measure because you really
did not have to understand what was being said. Dana Dajani , who was in Yeki Bood/ Yeki
Na Bood, also delivered a very smart clever bit of writing in a
rap style with Jibberish ( yes that is someones name) in “MiC Prophecies” which she and
Jibberish performed in a tight well put together piece.
I was pleasantly surprised by the breadth of material delivered in
the festival. From the fantastical “Because the world needs Unicorns”, which wins my vote for
best costumes with their Unicorn and Dragon costume I so wanted to put the
dragons tail, to the social conscious “A Spoon Full of Hope” loving
produced and directed by Ankita Manikantan and supported by the Back stage
crew. There were productions that showed a tongue in cheek ( I hope)
window into life in Dubai “ How To Win Friends”. I adored
“Borys the Rottweiler giving us a loyal view
of a dogs lot in life. Maha Hussain was a sympathetic and endearing
character. At no time did I feel uncomfortable with the idea that he was a dog.
I loved the simple trail of illogical logic that only a dog could have followed
through on.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Drama
Dubai Workshops Improv “ Dearly Deported #1”. Jonathan Siklos and the
gang put on a quick flowing ten minutes of good improvisation. It was great to have that
in the mix BUT it was really not what I would
have called a ten minute play. Not by any stretch of my definition of the term.
Which brings me to a point. It would be lovely if
next year the Festival has a breakdown of categories. I did not like to judge
the Improvisation together with the scripted plays. I also did not like to
judge the school productions against the adult productions as invariably they have
a different dynamic to that of an adult production. Just a thought. I also did
not like it that we only had one vote each
per show set. If you are attending to support
someone then changes are that you will vote for them out of loyalty. Unlike me who did not vote for my husband’s
play - I thought another play was better.
BAD MOVE ON MY PART. Anyway this means that many people do not vote for the
best play they vote for their friends play. Then there is the issue of big
casts getting big votes because they get big support. So I am just saying that
if each attendee got to vote two or three times on the same sheet it would
level the playing field a bit. Just a bit. And of course I would have a husband
that does not looks at me like I have shot
him with my cruel lack of support or
like I deserve to be shot for my cruel lack of support, alternatively, depending
on his mood and desired outcome. There is nothing for it, at the end of the day,
for the sake of my maintaining a good marriage, the voting and rules must
change. Oh and whilst I am on a rant there were people that auditioned in the
initial stages most of whom did not get parts whilst people that did not attend
auditions were given parts. I remember back in the day in a previous life of
Drama Darlings how this was a very contentious matter. If you hold auditions
you must cast from that. If talent does not attend the auditions then they should
not be considered. Alternatively don’t hold auditions and cast from who you know and once
you have cast the parts that you can from your pool of peeps then hold
auditions for the rest of the roles.
Back to the productions.
Overall my winner was The Others. A slick presentation by Theatrewallas
productions who, I am told usually, work in Hindi. It was not my favorite play, but
it was, for me, the Best Production. The pace was great. The atmosphere
menacing, the voices clear when they needed to be and bone rattling discordant
when appropriate. The cast was focused the script good the ending spookily eerie.
My runner up production was Perfect Stillness. Heart-warming and bitter sweet.
Rohit Prakash played a grieving husband having a conversation with his dead
wife, Aswathi Menon. Lovely performances.
I am a fairly shallow person when it
comes to entertainment. Coming from a third
world country I really have had my fair share of moralizing tales of an uplifting
( or not) nature. Being a drama darling I
have also encountered a hunk of serious ACTING In big shouty words. What I
like to watch is usually witty and clever and light. Considering tastes
it is good for me to be taken out of my
comfort zone and have my cage rattled a bit. Short + Sweet did that. So thank
you to everyone involved for creating a forum that made me watch things I would not rush out to see.
The writers, directors, actors and organizers all
worked so hard to put together two weeks’ worth of good value entertainment.
See y’all next year.
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