HPT Gets a Taste of India

This winter, the Pudding gets a new flavor with the taste of the Orient. The Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ (HPT) 163rd production—which opens February 4, 2011—will spice up the lives of its audience members by taking them on an Indian adventure complete with forbidden love, brutal murder, and cosmic redemption. In the show, titled “Kashmir If You Can,” this irreverent story of colonial India and some of the country’s rather eccentric inhabitants comes alive.

Taking on their first HPT script together is the ambitious writing duo Gus T. Hickey ’11 and David J. (“DJ”) Smolinsky ’11. When their show opens in the New College Theatre, the stage will be graced by an exaggerated array of characters including Pooch Yermoneywhereyourmouthis—a Slumdog Millionaire who is in fact an actual dog and a real millionaire to boot—who forbids the love between the steamy and attractive Arabian slave boy Kareem Inyourpants and the beautiful yet innocent Sari M. Notsari.

They will be joined onstage by Marta Luff, a Swedish milk maid, who is the only person in India pure enough to tend to the country’s holy cows. “She is well endowed, if you know what I mean, but there is more to love than just that,” Hickey jokes of his Scandinavian creation.

Despite the lust factor with Marta, the plot still focuses on nobler themes. “It’s a story of true love prevailing, like any fairy tale. Plus there is some jazz music and rock songs,” Smolinsky says.

The music extends way beyond the jazz and rock, however, as the co-writers point to Indian culture’s wide gambit of musical elements. Combining jazz and rock with Indian and Bollywood music means a fusion of activity and energy. “The music has a real Indian taste to it. Like paprika and curry,” Smolinsky says.

Both writers feel that since gaining their position, their humor has been scrutinized by everyone they meet. “I always have to deliver my A-material now,” Smolinsky says. “I have to be funny all the time.”

“People are always judging me if I don’t say something which makes them laugh,” Hickey adds.

This pressure might be getting to the writers. “There are no real jokes in this year’s show,” Hickey teases. “We’ve gone for a period piece, a period drama.” Smolinsky laughingly agrees, “It’s going to be a marathon in two parts.”

Although they joke about their lack of humor, the pair have a strong working relationship. “We have a very different sense of humor,” Hickey says. “But instead of being that friend who would let me throw grain alcohol down my throat, DJ would be the one to take me to AA.”

“We are both really eager and end up acting out voices or even the scenes and songs,” Smolinsky adds.

With this new writing team also comes a very fresh-faced cast, especially due to the fact that freshmen are stepping into four of the 12 roles. “We are lucky with the cast,” Smolinsky says. “The Hasty Pudding has a continuous cycle and people often get to know the organization really well, returning year on year. Now we can introduce new people to the traditions of the group.”

Jonathan K. Stevens ’14 is one such freshman who is eager to throw himself into the 40-show Pudding marathon which begins in Cambridge and later heads to New York and Bermuda. Stevens’s character, Vishnu Werehere, will require the enthusiastic actor to take on the form of a Hindu God who sits upon a mountaintop playing the harmonica. “It’s going to be so cool being painted blue every night,” Stevens says. “Also, the schedule will give me a taste of what it is like to act professionally.”

Stevens will be joined by eight other actors who have never before performed with the HPT, but Hickey and Smolinsky are not worried about these new additions. “These guys performed their audition pieces in ways we had never considered,” Smolinsky says. “Gus and I can alter a character to fit the person taking the role.”

Now that they have a cast to work with, the pair are going into writing overload, collaborating with the Pudding’s professional director Tony Parise to achieve the highest possible standard. “The Pudding is all I can think about at the moment,” Hickey admits.

“It’s getting stressful,” Smolinsky says. “But the show is going to be awesome.”

Reflecting on what “Kashmir If You Can” will bring to audiences, Hickey says, “They will leave with 9,000 gallons of smiles to last them a lifetime.”

“And their dignity,” Smolinsky adds. “I hope.”