For a hearty laugh: Bernard Slade, Ray Cooney

Continuing my journey with the British airways Theatre in Dubai, I was privileged to watch over two dozen plays penned by some of the best Broadway and West End playwrights. We talked about two living legends last time. Today let me give you a glimpse of two more whose work is repeatedly staged in India.

Bernard Slade is often compared to Neil Simon about whom I wrote last time, except that Simon writes about the life as it is, whereas Slade is more concerned with life as it should be. We saw his darling of a play called Romantic Comedy about a successful author of romantic comedies who marries a society belle. A mousy school teacher partners him as a budding playwright and together they earn fame and success. His world falls apart when his wife leaves him and his partner moves out. Events take a new twist and how he comes back from decline to fame once again makes it truly an enjoyable evening. However, Slade’s best known play is  Same Time Next Year, a love affair between two married people who meet for a romantic tryst one weekend every year. The play ran for four years on Broadway and was made into a successful motion picture. I staged it under my banner with Ronnie Screwvala in the male lead. Ronnie was a popular actor on Bombay stage before earning fame as producer of several Bollywood blockbusters. The late Bollwood actor Shafi Inamdar staged the play in Hindi. A brilliant Gujarati stage actress Daisy Irani (not to be mistaken with film actress Daisy Irani) played opposite him. Daisy was first launched by me in my Gujarati plays and acted in several of my hit productions. Today she is a television actress, director and producer in Singapore, best known for the role ‘Daisy’ in the popular Singapore TV series Under One Roof.

Let me sign off on Slade with his personal credo: “I believe the theatre should be a celebration of the human condition, and that the artiste’s job is to remind us of all that is good about ourselves. I feel privileged to be given a platform for my particular vision of life and whether my plays succeed or fail, I am always grateful for the use of the hall”.

Let’s now move to the king of farce Ray Cooney. Ray began his theatrical career as a boy actor and after playing in various repertoire companies, he began his writing career which to date has produced nearly 25 West End plays. We were fortunate to see his latest comedy hit Funny Money about an insignificant middle-aged accountant who whilst travelling on a train picks up a wrong briefcase without noticing it. Upon reaching home, he finds out his mistake. But he discovers £735,000 in the briefcase. Two hours of non-stop hilarity follow over the battle to keep the money! Ray’s biggest hit, however, was the record-breaking Run For Your Wife. The story concerns a London cab driver with two wives, two lives and a very precise schedule for juggling them both. Complications pile on as he tries to keep his double life from exploding. The play ran for nine years in London and is hailed as the longest-running comedy ever at West End. A critic wrote “Run For Your Wife should run for life”.

I staged the play in India and we completed 100 shows, the first for an English play in India at that time. Later we adapted the same in Gujarati calling it Double Savaari which was equally popular with us taking it all over USA with huge success. My wife Ruby played one of the wives in both the versions. Ray Cooney was conferred with OBE ( Order of the British Empire ) in recognition of his services to theatre.

The author is a well-known stage personality