Masked with humour

Business of Hotel Paradiso seems to be over when a corpse is found inside the four-star mountain resort. But with the old owner’s children fighting for possession of the hotel, a thieving maid, and a chef who chops up more than just pork, this downfall is not very surprising. Twisted with a touch of melancholy and oodles of satire, German production Familie Flöz is all set to capture the hearts of the audience with their play Hotel Paradiso.

Touring worldwide with its inimitable brand of visual comedy, the popular masters of mask theatre will present four actors enacting 29 different characters, no words and loads of laughs. “Hotel Paradiso is a fun comedy about a bunch of crazy people who work in this old-fashion hotel somewhere in the middle of the Alps, and their encounters with the equally funny guests who expected some days of peace and quiet, and instead are plunged in some mad adventure,” shares Gianni Bettuchi, artistic production manger of Familie Flöz.

He continues, “In this play, the audience will witness the conflict between two siblings, who are about to inherit an old hotel from their mother, and how they have two different visions about the future of the hotel against the backdrop of guests coming and other things simultaneously happening inside the hotel.”

The play will showcase humour, improvisation, mime and physical comedy to create a family-friendly show. According to Gianni, a mask discloses more than it conceals, opening up the inner world of a character and changing the actor wearing the mask to a completely different person. Explaining his experience with mask theatre, he says, “Mask theatre is a unique experience, almost a magical one! A few seconds after the show begins, something extraordinary happens — these masks start to smile, cry, become sad or get furious. How is it possible After the performances members of the audience are sure that our masks did move, but they didn’t. It all happened in the imagination of the audience, a collective imaginative experience so to speak.”

Even though all exchanges are non-verbal, music, certain noises and even silence are used throughout the show to create different kinds of atmosphere. Gianni says, “Music and sounds are a very important part of our shows. Various sounds create a sort of symphony and rhythm that acts as essential cues for the audience. Sounds tell the audience what is going on in the play and the background music and songs on the other hand always introduces and sets the tone and colour of the scene.”

India is the 34th country the theatre group is visiting with their production. Talking about the challenges faced while performing in a new country, Gianni says, “Every time it’s a new challenge as we don’t have any idea about how a new audience will react to our masks. Like in Finland for instance, there is no reaction from audience whatsoever during the show but extremely warm applause at the end. In Italy people laughed and shouted all the way through the show and then left the theatre after just 30 second of clapping. So, I guess we are pretty nervous about how the Indian audience will react to this form of theatre.” Today, 4 pm and 8 pm, Kamani auditorium