Tobe Tai: Satyam Bhattacharya and his group apologise as their show gets postponed due to broken AC

The play Tobe Tai, produced by The Hypokrites, could not be staged on June 4. The group will return the audience's ticket money. Those who want to watch the next show can do it with the same ticket on June 9. 

The AC on Gyan Manch in Pretoria Street stopped working last Friday. Some children got ill while doing a dance program on that day. The authority called in the night before the show and told The Hypokrites about the issue. Then they hastily arranged for mist fans. But they did not know those fans would sound so much. 

It was a difficult evening for the group. The audience was sweating profusely from the beginning. Around 20 mist fans are turned on in the auditorium and their sound makes it impossible to hear any words. The third bell rang but the screen was not lifted. The lead actor Satyam Bhattacharya came on the stage. He addressed the audience, “The AC is not working. You understand the situation. We are trying our best to do the show. You can hear our words if the fans are turned off. But if someone gets sick, please inform us immediately, we will stop the play. We will turn on the fans. We are also arranging for an interval, which was not there. Please let us know if you agree to that.” 

Actor Sanjib Sarkar and director Debesh Chattopadhyay sat in the front row. They encouraged, but some others objected. They said, “We will die if the fans are turned off. Let them go. You go on with mikes.” Hypokrites could not do the show. The play started but had to be stopped since nothing could be heard. Debesh also admitted that the sound system was weak. Director Susnata Bhattacharya and Satyam came again and apologised. They said that they were stopping the show. They said that the sale of the tickets ended and hence the audience could not be informed about the AC problem. 

The Gyan Manch authority said, “The engineers are informed. It will take two to three days to resolve the issue. In the meantime, no show will be there.”