Review: Short+Sweet, Week 2
Back again this time after seeing the results of week #2 i.e. the other set of 10 plays from the top 20. I was so anxious after last week that I actually went to the very first screening of the second half on Thursday evening. In fact, if you haven’t read about the Short+Sweet theatre festival, then do read the previous post to get some context.
The second installment was quite different from the earlier one: the bizarre plays were more bizarre, the rowdy ones were more rowdy and the best ones were better. There was more complex lighting; one of the plays went all the way to having a cast of 6 members, some of the stage set was more elaborate. All in all, this was a more intense installment.
Curiosity got the better of me and I returned to Ranga Shankara at the end of 3 days i.e. Saturday evening to see what the results were this time around. It also made for an excellent opportunity to interact with the performers and volunteers. One of the things that came out is that the performers had little or no idea about each other’s plays and not everyone had seen everyone else’s. The atmosphere today was strangely a little less tense and there were a lot of murmurs around which plays were the favourites.
This week’s results were quite different from last week’s. For one, the top 3 audience choices were announced in reverse order. The first choice was ahead by a huge margin. Then it was the turn for the judges’ choice and this is where things got interesting. The first two of the judge’s choice were the same as the first two of the audience’s but in reverse order. So the 3rd & 4th choices of the judges were announced to decide which play goes to the next round. The 3rd choice of the jury matched with that of the audience. The consistent voting pattern of the second installment unlike the first one is what makes me believe the best ones were from this week.
And now for the finals: it is almost like watching a sporting event where you’d want to go cheer for your favourite team. The competition is going to be brutal and I can’t imagine the pain the audience has to go through when the voting happens and what the performers have to go through during the show. The bad news is that the 7:30pm tickets are already sold out and only a few for the 3:30pm show are left (counters open at 10:30am). I’m still undecided if I intend to go see the performances again but I’m certainly going to try and make it for the final results. I wish the very best of luck to all the troupes.
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