The most important apps and sites on our phones this week have been the weather ones, with everyone alternating between looking at the skies and clicking on ‘windy’ every little while. Event organisers scrambled to finalise new dates and venues, with the rains paying no heed to important launches or tight timelines. Across the city, it’s that familiar feeling of ‘the show must go on’ as Christmas prep begins and with it, the cake mixing.
One of the events this week was a play at the Alliance Française of Madras, The Doctor in spite of Himself, a French comedy by Moliere, presented in English. First up, let me say how great it is to have theatre happening again in the city, live and in the flesh. While we appreciate the valiant efforts of the theatre fraternity to keep the flag flying high even during the pandemic, with virtual plays, we all agree that there’s nothing like the buzz of a live audience and hearing those reactions. The play script was in rhyming verse and one of the other highlights was that with every show, the cast was juggled, with different actors in the same roles. Director Amarendran said the idea is to draw more people into the theatre and to give the audience a chance to see the same play in different ways.
Also, making a special appearance and a break from the usual was the finale of a K-pop competition by the Korean Consulate, with loads of hard-core K-pop fans from all over the South taking part. This may be a lesser-known fact, but this category has a huge following amongst the teeny boppers, and the prizes included fun Korean gadgets. In first place in the dance and vocal categories were Maria Mize and Gauri Girish Nair respectively.