The double centaur-ied Saga
RON FIDELIS helps re-live the excitement as GT previews Menino de Bandar’s classic non-stop drama ‘Succorina’ that makes a comeback this rains.
SUCCORINA
MInino de Bandar
A Konkani play that began October 13th in 1984 created history in the tiatr world when it clocked a double centuary within a year naming the playwright, ‘King of Double Centuaries’. “It clocked a centuay within 3 months,” the playwright-director who nonetheless instantly shot to fame, Menino Fernandes adds for the record. “It was simply the people’s verdict,” he replies when asked the reason for the huge success of this tiatr.
So why are we talking about this tiatr’s success 30 years ago? Because it will be playing soon at a tiatr hall near You in the near future. “Many tiatr followers and others kept on asking why not bring this play up again to show it to the present generation? So I finally succumbed and here it is now, for everyone in the present to see.”
However this was not a tiatr. “It was a time when non stop dramas were much in vogue. So I have kept it as it is, but just included five cantarams as people these days love the entertainment apart from the story. Apart from the cantarams and the comedy that has also been tuned a bit, the drama remains the same. There is comedy within the play as well as outside the main plot,” Menino de Bandar as he is popularly called informs. A tiatr essentially has 6 or 7 separate acts with comedy imbibed within the main plot and a minimum number of cantarams with a specific variety like trios and quartets.
It was an incident that took place in Goa that sparked of the idea to Menino who penned a play adding his own inputs. “The real incident – the death of a mother who had a one year old – never really saw the light of day as far as arresting any accused. This case thus had people speculating and a lot of gossip around this who-dun-it mystery. So Succorina was born. I added a lot of masala to make it look different than the real story. However the public had picked up interest in the issue.” So Succorina ultimately catered to curious minds and became a huge hit. While the cap fitted well, Fernandes was however dragged to court by the family of the concerned from reality. “The case fell out since the evidence against the show was not convincing enough. But I do not wish to bring up old wounds, especially for the family. The point of harassment for a woman in a marriage; be it for reasons of dowry or anything else, was the main point around which this story was wound,” declares Menino de Bandar. Besides Milagres de Navelim, comedian Carlos Norohna from Borda and trumpeter C P Dias from the original cast who are no more, lead roles of late tiatr superstars Seby Coutinho and Rosario Dias are now done by veteran Joe Rose and Maxcy Pereira (aka Junior Shakespear).
While its resemblance to a similar incident in reality was what catapulted this tiatr to cross many boundaries, “that’s how a whole 15-member troupe first got to Dubai, to perform Succorina,” informs Fernandes. Two performances in the Comba hall at that time and one in Candolim in a matow (makeshift pandal) had to have the band accommodated on stage due to the crowds of people present. Wonder if Succorina can make a comeback like it did 30 years ago. After all, even today, it is only back, due to public demand.
TIATR 4U 