Notes

The Men in White: A Play Review
By Ashley Lee
Many of us do not think of cricket as a passionate sport. However, The Men in White, a play written by Anosh Irani, attempts to change this thought, while also addressing many social issues, such as racism and sexism. The play is directed by Philip Akin, and stars Chanakya Mukherjee, Tahirih Vejdani, Huse Madhavji, along with many others. I went to watch this play on October 24th at Factory Theatre in Toronto, Canada. Its themes, for example, Islamophobia, racism, and immigration are heavy topics that this play attempts to tackle.

The play starts off in Bombay (Mumbai), India, where a man named Hasan (Chanakya Mukherjee) slaughters chickens for a living. He has aspirations of becoming a great cricket player, and also hopes to woo Haseena (Tahirih Vejdani), an intelligent girl who dreams of becoming a doctor. On the other side of the world, Hasan’s brother Abdul (Gugun Deep Singh) faces many issues in Vancouver, such as racism and poverty. Despite the issues he comes across, he is able to find solace in playing cricket. I found this plot rather lackluster and boring. Some of the plot, such as the romance between Haseena and Hasan and the tragic ending felt very rushed and unrealistic, meanwhile in other parts the plot dragged on and became unbearable. I felt rather disappointed by the fact that the plot never allowed for the two worlds of Bombay and Vancouver to come together, even though the entire play was building up and anticipating the point of when Hasan arrives in Canada. I also felt a little disappointed that we never got to actually see any games of cricket, and only saw exchanges made in the locker room. At the end of the play, we hear Hasan’s favorite cricket player, Tony Greig, in the background. However, as pointed out by the question and answer segment of the play afterwards, it was not very clear to the audience who that was, as Hasan only mentioned Tony Greig in one line. In order for this scene to pose even more of a meaningful, tear-jerking impact, I believe that Hasan’s admiration for Tony Greig should have been a larger part in the play. The ending of the play is tragic, but has no meaning or purpose to it other than to shock the audience. The tragedy of the moment did not move the play further, and did not have any effect on the scenes after, other than causing anguish to the characters. We didn’t get to see the reactions of the characters (besides the initial reaction), and I would have liked to see his brother avenge him in a way by practicing even harder in cricket, or I would have liked to see how Baba and Haseena attempt to move on from the tragic turn of events.

For the most part, the characters in The Men In White were well developed, realistic and human. I loved Hasan’s character, and his bubbly, loveable personality. I enjoyed Baba, and his strict yet caring fatherly love for Hasan, and his attempts to bring Haseena and Hasan together. However, I found the other actors lacking a bit. I thought that Haseena’s character, although well developed, was unrealistic at some points. I didn’t understand how a girl like her would fall in love with an uneducated, goofball such as Hasan, and I found the choice to incorporate feminism into her character was conflicting. At the same time, I understood that a smart, strong girl like her would of course be a feminist, but a lot of her dialogue and the way her opinions on feminism and women empowerment felt rushed and fake, and needed to be toned down. I found Doc’s character unrealistic and bland, even though there was reason for him to be angry, it didn’t feel realistic for him to be mad at Abdul.

One of my favorite parts of the play was the acting, for the most part. The actors stayed open to the audience, and the volume was good. I found Chanakya Mukherjee’s portrayal of Hasan heartwarming, realistic and effective, and I enjoyed the small details and quirks that Huse Madhavji added to his character, Baba such as the hunched back and pacing. It allowed me to enjoy the play to a greater extent. However, I found other actors lacking. For example, some lines of dialogue from Sugith Varughese, the actor playing Randy, felt very forced and unrealistic, and the emotions of anger and frustration did not come to the actor naturally, thereby affecting how the audience perceived the character and the play in general. I found Cyrus Faird’s portrayal of Doc rather unrealistic. At the beginning, Doc appeared relatively carefree and nonchalant, but halfway through the play it seems he became angry for spontaneously. I would have preferred to see more pent-up anger in the beginning of the play from the actor, so that the audience could understand Doc’s character better and his reasons for becoming angry. I also found Abdul’s (Gugun Deep Singh) reaction to his brother’s death unrealistic and fake, as there was no shock, there was no time taken by the actor to digest the information given to him and that made it feel manufactured and fake.

There are many problems and conflicts throughout the play, such as the Hindu-Muslim conflict explored in the Vancouver scenes, the poverty that Abdul faces, and also the gang violence that Haseena and Hasan face in India. However, only some of these problems appear to be realistic and have enough built up for them to feel genuine, such as the poverty that the characters in India face and the discrimination in Canada. However, other conflicts and issues brought up in the play such as the Hindu-Muslim conflict, gang violence and sexism simply did not have enough time to develop into something very meaningful. I found the use of comedy in the play to be a hit or miss. It felt very mismatched with the serious subject matter, but sometimes worked in the presence of the more easygoing characters such as Hasan or Ram. In my opinion, the play would have fared better without the immature humor that almost felt injected into the story, and perhaps would be taken more seriously and its message and the topics it addresses would appear to be more meaningful to the audience.

The set of the play was simple, but conveyed the mood and time period of the play well. The lights were effective, and allowed the audience to focus on one place at once. The costumes were realistic and not over-the-top, and the makeup was minimal. The use of sound while talking to the gangster was effective, and almost acted as a response from him. However, I found the split stage ineffective and it overall split the play and created a feeling of disconnect. It made the play feel incomplete to me without the two worlds ever meeting, and i was sorely disappointed by this. I enjoyed the duality of some of the props, such as the benches that also functioned as chicken coops. I appreciated the use of the fourth wall to address the man on the motorcycle (and also as Haseena’s house), but without an actual person playing the role, the character felt unimportant and didn’t have an impact on the audience.

Overall, The Men in White is a play that addresses many social issues that we face in this age, but fails on the execution of the ideas it presents. It attempts to be a comedy and a serious play at the same time, and this causes its imbalance. Many of the audience members, as I noticed, seemed to be bored from the beginning to the end of the play, a couple even falling asleep. Other scenes, such as the end of the play with Tony Greig’s voice are meant to be powerful and significant, but instead confuse the audience. It’s an interesting idea, but I wish that its conflicting themes would be cut down into only a few, and that more time is taken to explore these ideas. I appreciated the play and its diverse, refreshing cast. It brings all these ideas to theatre that should definitely be explored more. I just wish that the execution of these ideas would be more polished.