Sir Tom Stoppard’s critically acclaimed and renowned play Every Good Boy Deserves a Favour will be staged at the NCPA on November 4th. The play set in the Soviet Union, counters the Soviet experiment using satire and shows the terrors of living in an orchestrated society.
Starring Neil Bhoopalam, Denzil Smith, Sohrab Ardeshir, Deepika Deshpande Amin & Mihaail Karachiwala, the Every Good Boy Deserves a Favour is directed by Bruce Guthrie. Bhoopalam says the play is “massively relevant” in today’s times. “It has been relevant from the time it was written. It will be relevant tomorrow as well. It makes you think about what you feel is right and wrong and what it is that the people in power think is right and wrong, with, of course, a lot of humour thrown in,” he says.
Smith is of the same opinion too. “Although written in 1970s, this play is absolutely relevant because it talks about totalitarian governments. It talks about how the state wants you to conform to certain beliefs and ideas. If you do not conform, you are considered crazy. That is basically the underlying message of the play. This is so relevant in today’s world. On a personal level, it is about what people call sane and insane,” he explains.
Explaining his role, Bhoopalam adds: “I play the role of alexander who has been put in mental asylums for over two and half years. He is locked away from his family. Even his son cannot see him except for once in a while. The only crime that I have done in their view is that I have a friend who keeps getting thrown into jail and there is a bunch of intellectuals and writers who are thrown away from societies and their voices are curbed.”
Amin adds that the play is cautionary and the fact that it is relevant even today is scary. “We see how we have learnt nothing from history and how not much has changed. Free thought is still not encouraged. He who is different is always cast aside and always looked at suspiciously. It is not only in Russia but all over the world,” she says.
About her role, she adds: “I play the role of a teacher, she has no name. She represents society in general and the system. She is moulding young minds into shape so that they can conform and be part of the orchestra of the society where everyone must know their place.”
Ardeshir, says that the play seems to transcend time and space for there has always been oppression. The conformist attitude of having to follow the will of the powers that be is a theme that still exists.
“I love the doctor’s role,” he says, adding, “It is a cameo. It represents all of us in many ways. It tells us who we are. There are times when we are weak, we conform. There are times when we rebel. There are times when we go ahead with our own fantasies and illusions. It is part absurdist and part very serious. It really summarises each one of us.”
This new production of this rarely performed play features an all-star cast and a 45-piece orchestra playing live on stage by the Symphony Orchestra of India.
Sir Tom Stoppard, the writer of the play has a special connect with India. The celebrated playwright spent his early life in India as a student at Mount Hermon American Multi-Racial School in Darjeeling after his family fled the Nazi occupation of Europe.
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