Eight clowns and a 3some

Theatrical clowning is vigorous, and can leave the audience in splits even while dealing with serious topics. The ‘3some: Three times the play’ cast invited YS Life to be a fly on the wall during rehearsal. The plays deal with both fun and sober themes, and, despite the name, aren’t NSFW.

Friday October 14, 2022 , 3 min Read

It’s 8.30 am on a Friday, and Prithesh Bhandary and his crew are trying something new a day before their next show. Prithesh, who’s written and directed the plays, wants the cast to handle the sounds even as they are on stage performing. The lights they can’t, because the consoles are away.

Sounds risky, but seems just the kind of challenge that Prithesh likes tossing at his team every now and then. And the eight-member cast—seven actually, but they roped in someone who was hanging about during rehearsals and helping—seems inured to such improvs.

‘3some’ is a collection of three stories performed using a unique form of method acting called clowning, explains cast member Naaz Ghani, and each play deals with a different format of storytelling.

Before they exit the curtains for the rehearsal, the cast invokes Chaplin with a chant: “I am but one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a higher plane.”

As well as this: “I don’t know what I am doing, but it’s okay.”

By way of costume at the rehearsal, the crew dons not much apart from a few sartorial props and clown noses, and yet the transformation is immediate. The energy is pumped up, and while the director isn’t part of any of the plays, he sure is in them. (Fair warning: if you are on the front row, so will you.)

Prithesh participated in a clowning workshop a few years ago during a phase of depression. So this time, although he had staged some of these stories earlier, he decided to incorporate clowning as the core.

“I feel happiness is something that we need to spread,” he says. So they decided to clown even for the serious play. “It was their idea,” Prithesh says, pointing to his team as they take a post-rehearsal break. “They said let’s do clowning here also. It is they who brought it up… that’s the beauty of it.”

The rehearsal's on at Lahe Lahe, a key centre for the arts in Bengaluru's Indiranagar area. Prithesh considers Lahe Lahe a partner that's provided consistent support and encouragement for his crew and plays.

Something in the first play—Snow White—caught my attention, and it kept rearing up for me through the next two—Happy Endings (based on actual conversations), and Quick Gun Murugan. It’s this: if you don’t like what you see in the mirror, would it help changing the mirror? Also, how likely is it that the mirror’s tired of you?

Not intentional, according to Prithesh. Clowning is the only thread through the three plays, he says.

Prithesh, an engineer-turned filmmaker and theatre artiste, won recognition for his film ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ when it was nominated ‘Best Indian Short Film’ at the Golden Leaf International Film Festival Award last year, as well at the Golden Sparrow International Film Festival.

He is also involved in an emerging community initiative called ‘Bagful of Creators’, meant to encourage all performance-oriented arts, not just theatre, but also things like dance and live-painting.

For now, it’s clowning.

The group—it doesn’t have a name, by design—will be performing at the following venues: