In my tiatr ‘Zoghzoghta Titleim Bhangar Nhoi’ I havehighlighted the issues of a farmer who is poor. He sends his younger brother toKuwait to enable himself to lead a better life, while he toils the soil. Inthis particular tiatr there was a scene wherein the husband and wife sit downtogether and enjoy their daily Kunji (rice gruel) together with the salt fishin the traditional style of squatting down. At this very moment, one catentered the stage and stood right in front of them. Seeing the cat’s behaviourthe audience was spellbound. The artist, Volley De Mello, who was performing onstage had the presence of mind to break a piece of the salt fish and gave it tothe cat. The cat took that piece of the salt fish in its mouth and made itsexit from the stage. Seeing this, the audience were even happier, and had theimpression that the cat was trained to play that role and it was all a part ofthe act.
Mistaking a cigarette lighter for a camera
This episode goes back to the sixties. We were young thenand as youngsters we would read a lot of Perry Mason’s Novels. I once wrote atiatr with a detective storyline and named it ‘Kalljidar XXX 303’ (CourageousXXX 303) and I was in the process of continuing the story as a series. Thetiatr went off well and was much appreciated by the audience. Romel and VolleyDe Mello were my main stay artistes, and they would always prepare themselveswell for their roles. Volley de Mello played the role of a ‘detective’ in thistiatr. While enacting this role, there was one particular scene wherein Volleywould light the cigarette in his mouth with a cigarette lighter. But, for somestrange reasons that day, while in the act, the cigarette lighter just refusedto light. We were all watching this scene from the side panels. someone in theaudience also noticed that the lighter failed to light the cigarette in hismouth. At the end of the show, this man walks into the green room and commentedto me “What a show, really good tiatr. Was that artist who was lighting thecigarette in his mouth with the lighter was actually not lighting his cigarettebut clicking a photo with a camera?” To this, I replied, “Oh yes, he was infact clicking a picture.” What else could I tell him? To tell you the truth,his thinking was just imaginative considering my artiste Volley de Mello wasplaying a detectives role, and this man took him seriously as a detective.Since detectives are known to carry such gadgets.
As recounted by Tomazinho Cardozo
