Hip Hip Hurray fame actor Zafar Karachiwala on new solo play: ‘I’ve learnt to be ugly on stage; life is ugly’

Zafar Karachiwala in his first solo performance, playing St Nicholas (by noted Irish playwright Conor McPherson), directed by Bruce Guthrie, head of theatre and film at NCPA.

If you were to Google actor Zafar Karachiwala’s name, you’d be inundated with references to the hit youthful show Hip Hip Hurray that first aired on Indian television in 1998. Following this, Karachiwala went on to do only a handful of films but kept returning to the Mumbai stage.

This time, it is for his first solo performance, at the age of 48, with noted Irish playwright Conor McPherson’s St Nicholas. Directed by Bruce Guthrie, head of theatre and film at NCPA, this one comes close on the heels of Halloween, with a hint of the supernatural. Karachiwala describes St Nicholas as ‘a funny, dark, humourous tale, with poignant moments.’

It tells the story of a disillusioned theatre critic who encounters a coven of vampires while in search of true love. And yet, both Karachiwala and Guthrie, wouldn’t classify it in the genre of horror. “These vampires are different from the archetypical vampires from our books and films. They are real. They are close to us. We imitate them and they imitate us,” says Karachiwala, in a Zoom interview.

Guthrie further says, “One of the things I like most about McPherson’s writing is that he always manages to weave an element of the supernatural. And he makes it feel like it’s not a strange thing, and it can exist in the world”.

The vampire and the critic

Zafar Karachiwala (left) with play director Bruce Guthrie, head of theatre and film at NCPA, Mumbai.

Karachiwala first read the play in September of this year and discovered that it was made up of stagnant lines, with no stage directions and no pauses. “When I started to read it aloud, if when it began making sense. It is a piece to be performed, not read. The character goes through a stream of consciousness and takes the audience with him,” he says of the text.

What does it feel like to be on the other side, as a theatre critic? Karachiwala tells us that part of his preparation involved speaking to a real one. “The character though, is not a regular critic. He doesn’t sit through every show, and claims to know what it is about in the first ten minutes. To have the power to destroy a production with one review, he loves that,” he says, confessing that even a glimpse of such power was intoxicating.

As the story progresses, the critic begins to question the true meaning of this power. The audience in turn will look at the critic and vampire in a new light. “What is a vampire in this day and age? Is a critic a vampire; someone who drinks the lifeblood out of another’s work? It poses all these questions,” says Karachiwala.

Coming of age, solo

Zafar Karachiwala on stage.

Karachiwala isn’t new to monologues but terms his first solo show, both frightening and exhilarating. He was on his own with a 40-page script but didn’t have to worry about messing up a co-actor’s cues.

After several popular plays like Class of ’84, The Verdict, and Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Karachiwala brings to this performance, new learnings and old wisdom. He has traded perfection for expression and has become less harsh on himself. “I’ve learnt to be ugly on stage. Life is ugly. We dig our noses, we spit, we do all these things off-stage, then why not on it?”

Director Guthrie too, is attracted to imperfect characters and it’s one of the things that made him choose St Nicholas in the first place. “I love the fact that the person we are spending the evening with is deeply flawed. Perfection is a bit boring. And that’s why we prefer Batman to Superman,” he says.

In the end

The 90-minute performance has no set and uses a bare-bones form of storytelling. It is set in Dublin and London, and the references have not been adapted to Indian cities. “We are in the same milieu. The places are not relevant, the experience is,” says Karachiwala.

Vampirism stands tall as a metaphor, but both Karachiwala and Guthrie, concur that above all, it is a story of love and the quest for it. Quoting one of his favourite lines from the play, Guthrie says, “The happiest man in the world is someone who can love someone more than himself (sic)”.

St Nicholas will be staged on October 14 and 15 at Little Theatre, NCPA, Mumbai