Rishi Ra­goonath

The Bol­ly­wood Prince and the Pau­per from Pe­nal proved to be a cap­ti­vat­ing the­atri­cal pro­duc­tion that kept au­di­ences on the edge of their seats. Di­rect­ed by Crazy Catholic and pro­duced by DC Shell The­atre and Cin­don Pro­duc­tion, the play suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed a six-show run at SAPA and NA­PA.

The pro­duc­tion tells the com­pelling sto­ry of two young men from vast­ly dif­fer­ent worlds. Hail­ing from dif­fer­ent coun­tries, so­cial class­es and lifestyles, the pair are com­plete­ly un­aware of each oth­er’s ex­is­tence, de­spite shar­ing an iden­ti­cal ap­pear­ance. When fate un­ex­pect­ed­ly brings their lives to­geth­er, their paths in­ter­twine, set­ting in mo­tion a se­ries of events that un­cov­er long-buried se­crets and ul­ti­mate­ly al­ter the des­tiny of an en­tire king­dom.

Prince Aryan, played by Joshua Gou­veia, lives as a prince and fu­ture king, while Ra­jen­dra Das, played by Tris­ton Gol­lop, lives in a fos­ter home run by Moth­er Su­pe­ri­or, a nun played by Sher­ry-ann Thomas-Goind­han, who op­er­ates a home in the peace­ful vil­lage of Pe­nal, where she holds a se­cret that could re­move kings from their thrones.

As dan­ger clos­es in on Prince Aryan, the two young men ex­change iden­ti­ties in a des­per­ate bid for sur­vival. What fol­lows is a fast-paced ad­ven­ture filled with ro­mance, de­cep­tion, fam­i­ly dra­ma and plen­ty of laugh-out-loud mo­ments. The tal­ent­ed cast seam­less­ly car­ries au­di­ences through a whirl­wind of emo­tions, com­ple­ment­ed by en­er­getic song-and-dance per­for­mances that bring the stage to life.

The sup­port­ing cast al­so de­liv­ers stand­out per­for­mances. Wes­ley Charles im­press­es as Ra­jveer, while An­neliese Kel­ly adds el­e­gance and depth as La­dy Nisha. Dar­rion Nar­ine en­ter­tains as Son­ny, Tiffany Ro­many charms as Su­mi, and Il­i­jah Louis com­mands at­ten­tion as King Avinash. Strong per­for­mances al­so come from Arya Jag­mo­han as Bhavya, Sasha Daniel as Mooni, Char­l­ize Ra­goonath as Lalti, and Arisa Ra­jan as the de­light­ful­ly mem­o­rable Shushti. Riz, who plays Din­di­al, warms hearts with live ren­di­tions of Bol­ly­wood songs.

Be­yond its cap­ti­vat­ing sto­ry­line, the pro­duc­tion con­nects strong­ly with lo­cal au­di­ences through its clever hu­mour and wit­ty com­men­tary on con­tem­po­rary is­sues af­fect­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go. The vi­brant cast beau­ti­ful­ly cap­tures the true spir­it of Trinidad and To­ba­go, burst­ing with colour, hu­mour and au­then­tic Tri­ni flair. The pro­duc­tion show­cas­es lo­cal peo­ple, mouth­wa­ter­ing cui­sine, dis­tinc­tive fash­ion, live­ly di­alects and ir­re­sistible dra­ma. Set against the bustling back­drop of a tra­di­tion­al Tri­ni mar­ket, the stage be­comes a melt­ing pot where every race, cul­ture and creed blends seam­less­ly.

Fol­low­ing the suc­cess of The Bol­ly­wood Prince and the Pau­per from Pe­nal, the­atre lovers can look for­ward to the com­pa­ny’s up­com­ing pro­duc­tions, Rumpel­stilt­skin in Ju­ly and The Leg­end of San­ta, promis­ing even more fam­i­ly-friend­ly en­ter­tain­ment and the­atri­cal mag­ic in the months ahead.