'Four rooms', no walls: Crowd squirms as child actors cuss

CHENNAI: The seats squeaked as the audience squirmed at Museum Theatre on the weekend. On stage was a presentation of 'Four Rooms', an adaptation of a four-part film (loosely based on work by Roald Dahl) made in 1995 by four directors, including Quentin Tarantino.Directed by Michael Muthu, the play follows a bell-hop as he navigates four hotel rooms and singular situations, which include a coven of witches on a sperm hunt, a fantasy hostage situation played out between a couple, a high stakes dare calling for the chopping of a finger and the segment that set the cat among the pigeons - two children aged nine and 13 'smoking', 'drinking' and cussing.The underage dissolution apart, the rest of the play was a nose-dive into explicit, expletives-laden, but hilarious, waters. The only-for-adults play threw up a few questions about the appropriateness of casting children in a production for adults.'The Misbehavers' segment follows the antics of two children left behind in a hotel room by partying parents. The two watch porn, swill champagne, smoke cigars and use syringes they find as darts - with the 13-year-old girl swearing like a deckhand.While casting for 'Four Rooms,' Muthu says, he cautioned parents that the script required their children to speak a few bad words. Ruby Ann Masilamani, an RJ with a degree in psychology, stepped up to the plate. "I initially thought it was an adult topic and wasn't sure Nathan (her 9-year-old) should be in it, but my son did not have to say any bad words," she says.Muthu assured her the children would not witness the explicit segments. "Their rehearsals were separate and during the performance they were out of earshot for the rest of the play. I took them for a tour of the grounds," Masilamani says.Masilamani says she made it plain to her children (her 14-year-old daughter Anushka played a corpse in 'Four Rooms') that smoking, drinking and cuss words were role-playing, with disastrous results in real life. "I said to Nathan every time he went for a rehearsal, 'You're never going to smoke and drink'. He'd ask me if I smoke and I'd say no," Masilamani says.Shaan Katari Libby, who plays the children's mother, says the adult actors were initially uncomfortable with children participating in a provocative storyline. "But we never rehearsed in front of them. The play will make people sit up and think about the way adults influence children," she says.Muthu admits the play is meant to shock and scandalise. "I watched the film 10 years ago and realised it could be adapted for stage. But I shuddered at the thought. Every couple of years I'd confront the idea, but only now I thought Chennai was ready for such a play because the city is well and truly on its way to debauchery," he says, tongue slightly in cheek.Many say they can't recall a play like this being staged in the city. "Children are seldom cast in plays," says Sadanand Menon. He recalls the boys clubs of Madurai and Erode of the 1920s, '30s and '40s that comprised young actors like MGR and Sivaji Ganesan. "Playwrights like Karunanidhi and Annadurai challenged social orthodoxies and shocked the audience, but theirs were social or political commentaries."Playwright Gnani Sankaran says directors have to be sensitive while handling children cast in complex roles. "They have to be prepped and explained the context of their parts," he suggests. There is no authority to regulate casting of children, Sankaran says. "I'd advise self-regulation."A 2013 Madras HC verdict came to the rescue for presenters of 'Four Rooms'. Prior to the court ruling that certain provisions of the Tamil Nadu Dramatic Performances Act, 1954, were unconstitutional, scripts had to be vetted by the city police. If the rule stood, 'Four Rooms' may not have made it through the door.