21 March,2014 10:02 AM IST | | Ruchika Kher
This Sunday, relive your college days at the staging of the 250th show of Class of '84 as they look to tap into uncharted terrain by taking the play to a new audience in Shivaji Park, for the first time
For most people, their college days remain the best years of their life, and for all those who relate to this sentiment, head to the 250th staging of Class of '84.
The play revolves around seven friends, who studied together at St Xavier's College, batch of '84 and meet again after many years at the funeral of their eighth friend, Jojo. During this reunion, while the friends are concerned about the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of their friend, other skeletons fall out of the closet.
Actors Rajit Kapur and Shernaz Patel
Mumbai based director Rahul da Cunha, who wrote this 105-minute play back in 2003, is elated with the journey the play has traversed. "When I wrote this play, I thought it would be enjoyed by a few pals from Xavier's. I never thought that 11 years later, we would be celebrating 250 shows," he shares.
While for all these years - the play that includes actors like Rajit Kapur, Rituraj, Shernaz Patel and Devika Shahani among others - was mostly staged in South Mumbai and Bandra, this time, Da Cunha is hoping to tap a new audience by choosing the Veer Savarkar Theatre in Shivaji Park as the venue.
He explains the choice: "Over the years, we've catered to largely South Mumbai and Bandra, basically because the auditoria are situated there. But there are huge untapped markets all over the city." The director informs that they are starting the exploration with Dadar and Matunga audiences, hoping to attract the collegians.
The cast of Class of '84 during one of the past stagings of the play
"We're hoping for an equally positive response from younger audiences from colleges like Ruia, Ruparel and Podar, and the youth from these parts of the city," he shares, briefing us that while in all these years he has more or less kept the script unchanged, to move with times. He has upgraded some of the references that were in vogue in 2003, to more of the 2014 variety.
