Maadhu Balaji (right) with his late brother and acclaimed Tamil playwright Crazy Mohan
| Photo Credit: K Ganesan and Shivaraj S
Inside a dark room at Luz’s MdnD performance space, the laughs are on. As the Tamil theatre group Crazy Creations stage their evergreen comedy play, ‘Marriage Made in Saloon’, the entire first row erupts in laughter at a clever wordplay that its protagonist, ‘Maadhu’ Balaji, has just cracked.This could be a Sunday evening at any of the leading sabhas in Chennai. Except it is not.Here, the audience is so close to the performer that — in Balaji’s own witty words — “kai romba neetina, yaara mooka kuthiduven” (If I stretch my hand too much, I’ll poke the nose of the person in the first row”).With about fifty people watching, seated close to each other and to the performers, late playwright Crazy Mohan’s Tamil comedies are not only finding new audiences but also a home in intimate spaces in the city. Through ‘Chamber of Humour’, Crazy Mohan’s brother and actor, Madhu Balaji, wants to take Tamil theatre to smaller sets of audiences.
'Maadhu' Balaji, brother of the late Tamil playwright Crazy Mohan, on stage during a performance of ‘Chamber of Humour’
| Photo Credit:
