Slithering Away:
Sleuth (1970) is Anthony Shaffer’s most famous play—it has had multiple stage productions in various languages; it has been filmed twice—the first in 1972 by Joseph L Mankiewicz with heavyweights like Sir Lawrence Olivier and Michael Caine; in 2007, Kenneth Branagh remade it with Michael Caine and Jude Law.
The Tony Award-winning play was so cleverly plotted and had such sharp dialogue that works half a century later, even though the conflicts in it seem old-fashioned. The advantage for a group attempting it today, is that it is a two-hander, and can be updated. It is imperative, however, for the pacing to be correct and the acting to be top notch.
Saanp Seedhi is Aadyam’s third production of the season, directed by Shubhrajyoti Barat, starring Kumud Mishra and Sumeet Vyas, with Akarsh Khurana doing the Hindi adaptation.
The original was essentially a verbal duel between a middle-aged man and a younger rival for his wife’s affection. The older man is rich, sophisticated, a successful writer of detective novels and horribly snobbish, offended not so much by his wife’s infidelity as he is with the one she chose over him—a working class hairstylist of Italian origin. In the pre-woke era Shaffer got away with is character using racist slurs, and making outrageously insulting statements about his wife. The other interesting thing about Sleuth, was the mansion of the writer, full of bizarre wind-up toys and grotesque mannequins.
In Saanp Seedhi, Anil Wadhwa (Mishra) comes from a B-grade Bollywood movie background, so the only thing he can mock Mayank Tiwari (Vyas) about is his inability to ‘get’ his movie and book references. Not too classy himself, he is hardly in the position to look down his nose at his wife’s lover.
Shaffer’s play was about the husband inviting the wife’s lover to his home and persuade him to steal his wife’s jewellery in a hidden safe. His reasoning is that the jewellery will help Mayank cope with his high-maintenance wife, and he will be able to claim insurance, so it’s a win-win. Of course, the play hinges on Mayank agreeing to the offer; had he walked out with his dignity intact, there would be no Sleuth.
It is difficult to write about the contrived plot without giving out spoilers, but what it boils down to is clash of egos between the two men and Wadhwa’s intense jealousy concealed by his swagger. In Khurana’s simplified adaptation, the class and race elements do not come into play, but the full impact of the revenge angle is also diluted. In the original, to humiliate the lover, the writer makes him don a ridiculous clown costume, so that the robbery looks authentic. A Zorro mask and cape do not have the same sadistic effect.
Because Barat paces it well, and the two actors bring out the wit and scorn of the verbal sparring, the Saanp Seedhi is enjoyable. The set of a Goan villa is hideous—as it is mean to be—even without the profusion of the wind-up toys, since Wadhwa obviously has no taste. It is actually understandable that his wife wants to escape from his museum of vanity.
It must be mentioned that the brochure of Aadyam plays are always creative— the one for Saanp Seedhi is designed like a gossip magazine, as frivolous and amusing as those silly fanzines, that are being gradually obliterated.
(This piece first appeared in mumbaitheatreguide.com)
