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Rehearsals have begun for a play centred on two mismatched roommates being staged by Bahrain’s oldest English-language theatre group, with some of the crew roles still open to volunteers.
The Manama Theatre Club (MTC) is gearing up to put on a comical performance of The Odd Couple, a play by Neil Simon that centres on neat, uptight Felix Ungar and his roommate - the easy-going Oscar Madison.
“The play explores the intersection of friendship, relationships and cohabiting,” the play’s director Ghassan Chemali told GulfWeekly.
“And while the commentary on the strangeness of such intersection may be a little outdated today, the comedic and relatable situations which are brilliantly depicted in the play are ageless.”
In the story, Felix, a neurotic, neat freak, is thrown out by his wife, and moves in with his friend Oscar.
Despite Oscar’s careless spending, and poor life habits, he seems to enjoy life. Felix, however, seems utterly incapable of enjoying anything and only finds purpose in pointing out his own and other people’s mistakes and foibles.
After its premiere on Broadway in 1965, the characters were revived in a successful 1968 film and 1970’s television series, as well as several other derivative works and spin-offs.
“We want to remain true to the original version as much as possible, bringing back the vibes of 1960’s New York,” Ghassan explained.
“However, the multi-ethnicity of the current cast compared to the original one will undoubtedly modernise the play’s statement and touch on its universality.
“Multi-ethnicity not being strange to New York, we wouldn’t be stepping away from the original setup.”
The MTC team is currently looking for volunteers interested in marketing, social media, photography and front-of-house to complete the crew.
Joining Ghassan in putting on the play will be producer and MTC chairperson Hannah Turner.
“We were originally looking at different murder mysteries but nothing seemed to click at the table reads, so Ghassan suggested The Odd Couple - coincidentally, Fools by the same playwright, Neil Simon, was the performance we had to cancel due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so it came full circle back to him, and as soon as we did the first reading, we realised how funny and relatable this was,” Hannah explained.
Relative to the HELP! I’m a Celebrity Pantomime Dame, Get Me Out of Here! performance staged last year, the cast is comparatively smaller, with two primary leads and five supporting characters.
“To anyone looking to learn and understand how a play is led and managed, I would say this is the perfect opportunity, as there are many skilled and experienced people handling production and a lot can be learned from them,” Ghassan added.
“For this play in particular, the attention to props, and backstage support for actors, usually handled by stage managers is very much important.
“Timing of sound cues and the quality of lighting are also important. People can also learn about how the space of stage is optimised in set design to suit the play’s storyline, actions and practical requirements of the backstage.”
For more details, follow @mtcbahrain on Instagram.
