Bengal madness once more in Colombo – box office opens!

Jehan Aloysius and CentreStage Productions will be staging the hilarious comedy ‘Bengal Bungalow’ on 30 November and 1 December at the Lionel Wendt Theatre, and the box office has just opened at the Lionel Wendt Theatre! 

‘Bengal Bungalow,’ written and directed by Jehan Aloysius, is possibly the wildest and wackiest comedy in the repertoire of his theatre troupe CentreStage Productions. The blatantly concocted situations and characters, which are very much in the style of farcical theatre, push the boundaries of comedic drama. 

In fact, the play is a mix of British farcical comedy in the style of Ray Cooney and cartoony humour and characters in the style of the Simpsons. The humour is deliciously tongue-in-cheek at times with plenty of slapstick comedy, making this wild romp in Bengal a hilarious bedroom farce with many twists! 

Set in Bengal in the late 1930s, ‘Bengal Bungalow’ is a fast-paced situation comedy with mistaken identity, sensational characters and situations as well as cunning twists. 

The plot revolves around a British family residing in India, whose home, Bengal Bungalow, becomes a bizarre circus when a British pilot decides to accidentally crash his aircraft through the newly-refurbished guestroom. The pilot loses his memory as a result of the crash, leading to a host of comic misunderstandings, misdemeanours and misadventures. 

Lillian ‘chooses’ the pilot as her husband and marries him immediately, jilting her suitor Charles Worthing. Enter a host of British and Indian characters, ranging from a hapless priest, a notorious robber and the pilot’s actual wife, to an enraged mahout and a menagerie of animals, and the plot spins and twists into a hilariously dizzying world of madness.  

Jehan’s directorial credits include ‘Reality Show,’ ‘Rag – The Musical,’ ‘The Ritual,’ ‘Pyramus & Thisby,’ ‘Caliban’s Rebellion,’ ‘Prince of Egypt,’ ‘Stormy Weather,’ ‘Bengal Bungalow,’ ‘An Inspired Swan Lake’ and ‘Nutcracker’. The troupe’s works have also travelled around Sri Lanka and overseas, and featured in the foreign media. 

CentreStage Productions, the theatre troupe behind the show, was founded by Jehan Aloysius in 2001 and has produced excellent quality theatre productions which have often sold out. The StageHands Project, which is the humanitarian arm of the theatre troupe, has been actively initiating theatre-based workshops around the island in order to address social and youth issues.  

Jehan informs us that it’s been two years since the troupe last staged ‘Bengal Bungalow’ in 2016, which was an immense success, earning full houses. He claims he was pleasantly surprised that a script he had originally written when he was just a schoolboy could become such a box office success.

This year’s performance consists of an exciting cast of both young and prominent thespians such as Patrick De Kretser, Shehan (Babs) Wijemanne, Reihan Stephen, Roshane Jayampathy, Chantal Dassanayake, Heshal Pieris, Dion Nanayakkara, Aadil Osman, Suranee Gomez, Hashen Ratnayake and Tharusha Kumarasinghe.

The new cast is apparently bursting with creative energy! As an amateur theatre troupe specialising in producing and promoting original theatre, they are thankful to their Gold Sponsor Cargills PLC for continuing to support them for the last 15 years, Bronze Sponsor Mercantile Investments and Radio Partner Real Radio. So don’t miss the madness on 30 November and 1 December at the Lionel Wendt. 

The production team of the play recommends purchasing tickets soon as many have already purchased their tickets. The box office for ‘Bengal Bungalow’ is open at the Lionel Wendt. Tickets can also ordered in bulk via the CentreStage hotline 0772949767.

So run and grab your tickets for the fast paced, absolutely hilarious smash-hit comedy ‘Bengal Bungalow’!

Pix courtesy Theewra