After an eight-year hiatus, theatre company Fools & Sages is back, staging Neil Simon’s iconic comedy The Odd Couple under the direction of Ajai Kesavan. The play, which follows two mismatched roommates — Oscar, a carefree sportswriter, and Felix, an obsessively tidy man recently separated from his wife — invites Bengaluru’s theatre lovers to experience the humour and poignancy of this tale of friendship, quirks, and clashes. Ajai’s fond memories of watching the 1968 film with his father fueled his decision to direct the play, bringing a fresh, relatable spin to this classic.
“I remember seeing The Odd Couple film with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau on a rented video cassette when I was around 13 or 14,” Ajai recalls. “I was rolling on the floor laughing, and since then, I wanted to bring a bit of that joy back.” Revisiting the play for this new production also brings a welcome challenge: balancing the nostalgia of Neil Simon’s 1960s humour with the modern theatrical sensibilities Bengaluru audiences expect.
Still from ‘The Odd Couple’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Ajai’s approach embraces the play’s humour while adapting its tone for a local audience, like incorporating Indian English accents to make it more relatable. With over 50 actors auditioning, he cast a talented group that naturally embodies the deadpan, subtle style of comedy The Odd Couple demands. “A lot of the humour is deadpan, so telling a joke without trying to be funny was .