Mourn with laughter

A group of seven quirky friends gather to mourn the sudden death of their friend Rahul, with a heady mix of grief and alcohol. As they begin unfurling the various layers to Rahul’s demise, the discussion organically leads to the inevitable truth of life —  the death — all with a heavy dose of humour.

Starring Anuradha Menon, Rytasha Rathore, Aseem Hattangady, Danny Sura, Omkar Kulkarni, Sohrab Ardeshir, and Zafar Karachiwala, director Deven Khote’s play Good Mourning takes the lighter side of a topic like death dealing in the genre of dark comedy.

The play is triggered from an incident that took place between Khote and writer Kavi Shastri, and both strongly believe that humour is the antidote to anything, even death.

“It is about the evening when these seven people meet, which goes in an unexpected direction. It just so happens that they are meeting after coming back from a funeral. The writer has put together a fabulous cast of characters, who are all slightly mad and have their quirks. It is relatable and the audience will find a character just like their friend. There is a serious thread that runs through it because of the situation,” says Deven.

Stand-up comedian Anuradha Menon, who plays the grieving widow Lila, is incidentally the only character without comedic lines; her character comprehending the layers of her husband’s death through the play. “It starts from the scene just after the funeral, when everybody comes home to see if Laila is okay. Then over time it all spins out of control, and dark truths are revealed. Alcohol maybe or maybe not involved,” says Anuradha, who enjoys the process of finding the character and creating an imaginary life.

Questions surrounding Rahul’s death, whether it a suicide or not, intrigue the audience while keeping their laughter running.

Aseem Hattangady’s Rupert, who is the deceased’s best friend and a showman, lives on the sensitive side and is devastated over the event. While putting toegther a sensitive topic like death with humour can be challenging, Aseem believes that for an actor it is best to play with the script.

“The dark comedy is not in the performance as much as it is in the script. If you play the line or scene the way it is written, then the dark comedy is a result of that. If you do justice to what is being written and play it in the current circumstance, it will result in a dark comedy,” he says, adding, “You don’t particularly have to play comedy to lighten the mood, it is a function of the script. For an actor to then play that script sincerely and in the given circumstance is the key to playing any comedy.”