Accepting imperfection

By Rashika Fazali

Taking a walk from one side of the spectrum to the other, Director Jehan Bastians does it again, although a bit differently. Moving away from the norm, Bastians stated that he and his cast wanted to do something a bit more crazy and challenging.

“We also wanted to do something comical as we are known for comedy as well,” said Bastians. Adding to that, the main actress Neidra Williams said, “It also gets tiring to do the same thing for a while.”

But what is different this time around? The cast for the new play, ‘Nobody’s Perfect (Love is All Around)’ is smaller, with only five actors in comparison to their large eight to 10 member cast. It is also a romantic comedy play and the name ‘Nobody’s Perfect’ emphasises just what it means – accepting that you are not perfect nor is anyone.

Whilst having a chat with Williams who adamantly stated that she is only acting this time, she revealed that the storyline is about a man who falls for a woman certainly out of his league amongst other things.

However the build up to that point of the story comes from a slightly astounding angle. Steve, a writer played by Kanishka Herath, is on a search to find a good publishing company to publish his book. However, the only company who is remotely interested in his book happens to be a feminist publishing house which only publishes female authors.

Give up or go for it? Steve decides to dress the part of a lady and go for it and is seen having to deal with a feminist publisher quite out of his comfort zone, Lauren, played by Williams. Soon it turns into love and he wonders whether he should still give up or go for it.

While this drama unfolds, his father Mike, an illustrious womaniser played by Avishka De Alwis who happens to have been expelled from an elders’ home for ‘gross indecent behaviour’ unveils another drama of his own. “He is typical a dirty old man who grew old without growing up,” explained Bastians. And finally Trinushka Perera plays the role of Steve’s daughter, Abigail, as a typical, rebellious teenager while Stephan Anoj comes into the play as a non-speaking role.  

All in all, the play showcases extremists – character wise. Steve believes in a one-man woman relationship and is quite an introvert while his father believes otherwise and is seen not looking the part of a normal, decent grandfather and father.

“Overall, it is a romantic comedy. There are also discussions on what falling in love means,” said Williams. ‘Nobody’s perfect’, produced by Javin Thomas and Billam Poulier together with Silent Hands, is set to show the right amount of modern and traditional values when it comes to love.

Having started production last November, they play comes right in time for Valentine’s Day even though Williams explained that their intention was not to put out the play specifically during the month of love.

Different to what Bastians and Williams do generally, they hope their new play works well for the Sri Lanka audience as Williams noted that our audiences do not realise the effort put in to make characters look believable.