Hello World from Agla Play.
I am a theatre enthusiast and have watched more than 50 theatrical performances in last three years alone.
Having watched so many actors, directors, scripts and theater groups, the challenge of choosing next play still bewilders me. Unlike movies and books,
- NO IMDb/RT or GoodReads: Unlike movies, there are no IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes for us which provide us with some normalized rating.
- Subjectivity: The art is always subjective. In the plays, the subjectivity difference takes on a whole new level. Even in those plays liked by the whole group, favorite scene is different for each individual.
- SAY NO BAD: Third but the biggest challenge is that the very few review sites which are there do not write anything bad about any play. Sometimes this is about their conservative approach due to (2) above. That is horse-shit in my opinion because then NOTHING in this world should be written bad about.
- Courtesy: Many a times, reviewers simply do not write bad things out of courtesy. [They will use all the boring, f****, absurd, long, over-stretched, pathetic and other adjectives when you ask in person]. It is tough, too. You see the performers in person. The actors are working so hard towards the play and the human element comes up. This again does not make sense to me because then no movie should be rated bad, too! A play may be involves 20 people, working on say, 4 months? A movie may involve 200+ people and the post-production itself may take double the amount of time. For the sake of the performers, it is important that they get true feedback so that they can work on it!
- Reviews with spoilers: The few reviews out there end up summarizing the whole story, killing the awe and shock of a first-hand experience of twists and turns.
The idea of aglaplay.com is to fill this gap, particularly for Mumbai residents who are interested in plays and live performances. I will try my best to grow this platform as a source of short, unbiased, spoiler-free reviews.
I welcome the readers to share your valuable feedback / comment with me through contact me link or through comments below.