The Plays

The Game | March 5, 2012, 7:30 pm, Kamani Auditorium

Nominated for: Best Play, Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male), Best Actor in a Leading Role (Female), Best Stage Design

Produced by: Raell Padamsee’s Ace Productions Pvt. Ltd.

Directed by: Sam Kerawala

Language: English

Duration: 1hr 10min

He's irascible. She's sweet. He cusses more than he speaks, gnawing on his cigar. She holds her hands primly and requests that he not use Khodaiji's name in vain. But when fate or circumstance throws them both together on the back porch of the Pallonjee nursing home, they're forced to find a way to get along and pass their time with competitive and increasingly rancorous games of rummy. The game, of course, is a metaphor for the larger games the characters have been playing throughout their lives, and as they play, the ghosts of their past and the cards are dealt again. It’s fascinating to watch as their frustrations, failures and angst-filled regrets are slowly exposed.

Director’s Note
The play is a unique piece of magnificent acting, by two veterans of the Theatre World – Alyque Padamsee and Sabira Merchant. It is about two old parsees in a charitable institution, spending what’s leftover of their life, trying to find meaning, solace, comfort and laughter out of simple moments. Death is destined, so every moment of peace, happiness and companionship is a bonus. 
 In the fast paced world of today, plays hardly ever feature senior actors in lead roles because the audience enjoys seeing younger people on stage. But there is an amazing appeal into their moments of laughter, truth and realization that it draws teen as well as sophisticated adults in.

Nominees:

Sam Kerawala Best Director
Most of his time as a theatre person in the last six decades, however, was spent in dabbling in all aspects of stagecraft—acting, direction, stage management, set and light designing. His understanding of everything related to stage also stems from his association with the famous Adi Marzban, Derek Jeffrey, Burjor Mistry, Berry Barker are some of the other renowned theatre personalities Kerawala worked with. He has done more than 240 plays in Gujarti, English, Marathi. He was presented Thespo’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Alyque Padamsee Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male)
Alyque Padamsee has directed more than 70 plays over a span of 50 years.  Almost all his productions carry the stamp of excellence with attention to the minutest detail.  Whether he is producing spectacular musicals like Jesus Christ, Super Star and Evita or intimate plays like Girish Karnad’s Broken Images and Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party, his selection concentrates on social commitment.  For his outstanding contribution as an actor and director, Alyque Padamsee received the Sangeet Natak Akademi award and the Padmashree Award from the President of India for his lifetime contribution to the theatre.

Sabira Merchant Best Actor in a Leading Role (Female)
A skilled communicator, Sabina made her first breakthrough with Theatre group’s The Word followed by The Wild Duck, Tughlaq, Duet for one and The Idiot. She is currently acting in The Game with over 150 performances so far. She won the Best actor award for A Streetcar Named Desire. Besides being a theatre and film personality, she has specialized to guide on speech, diction, etiquette, grooming and public speaking.  She had trained a whole lot of beauty contestants including Lara Dutta, Yukta Mookhey, Diana Hayden and Priyanka Chopra.

Bhola Sharma Best Stage Design
Bhola Sharma is a graduate from J.J. School of Commercial Art credentialing in Commercial Arts, Fine Arts, Industrial Photography, Interior Design, Film Production, Audio Visual and Animation. He has specialized himself in the art of set and light designing through sheer hard work and dedication of 35 years with a wide range of assignments that includes Film, T.V., Theatre, Award Night Shows as well as Music Concerts. He has been abroad with various stage shows.

Cast and Credit

On Stage
Alyque Padamsee
Sabira Merchant

Off Stage
Executive Producer - Craig Dequadros                    
Production Supervisor  - Risha Naik
Set Design - Bhola Sharma
Lighting Design  - Sam Kerawala, Bhola Sharma
Sound  - Gautam Dhanu
Lights - Chetan Chand
Production Manager - Amanda Cardoz
Production In charge - Monica Rawal, Natasha Aref
Backstage Management  - Prarthana Gupta
Assistant to the Director - Heena Kamte
Marketing & Promotions - Risha Naik, Monica Rawal
Publicity Design  - Siddharth Kumar
Still Photography  - Ryan Martis