Most of us feed on sexist, crass and bad humour with an almost guilt-free approach and suddenly, even not-so-funny jokes involving female body parts, Botox and homosexuality become extremely hilarious because they come with a pre-packaged ‘It’s only a joke’ tagline. Mumbai-based theatre actor and director Divya Palat’s Foursome, a collection of four short sketches that was recently staged in the city at Taj Club House, was nothing more than one tactless joke after another. The jokes were funny, alright, but with the expectations it created before it came to city – winner at many Fringe Festivals around the world - one would have expected to see at least a few jokes that didn’t seemed borrowed from Bollywood or a sitcom.
With a common theme of contemporary relationships, all four sketches seemed like rip-offs, like things you’ve watched before, but you can’t really remember where. In the first piece Superstar, a foreign-return wannabe actress meets a con actor, who promises her a big role, which turns out to be as his wife for his sister’s wedding. On a positive note, the actors were extremely interactive with the audience, even engaging them in the onstage conversation. But the short skit was also farfetched at a level that the humour was just lost. The actors, however, were definitely the saving grace of the show.
The second piece Like a Virgin felt more original and witty, with its Orkut references and nerd culture, that somehow seems to be the rage right now.
The Bleep Talk, where a father-daughter relationship is portrayed and The Marriage Counselor, where a young couple tries to fix their broken relationship, were also part of the 80-minute ensemble.
Foursome is supposedly a rib-tickling comedy, but it doesn’t mean it’s funny. It’s like a placebo effect that you get while watching sitcoms on TV – there’s a laugh track that’s playing in the background and you feel obligated to laugh. The same goes with Foursome. The man in the seat next to you thinks Bollywood jokes are hilarious, you look at him and you immediately feel like it is only polite that you laugh along, at least a little. And the ripple effect begins – the entire room is laughing.
Well, maybe the truth is that the section of the audience that wasn’t laughing just wasn’t getting the jokes. But is Foursome for your kids? Definitely not.
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