The Interview

“If you could be #1 employee but have all your coworkers dislike you or you could be #15 employee and have all your coworkers like you, which would you choose?”“How many people are using Facebook in San Francisco at 2:30pm on a Friday?”“If Germans were the tallest people in the world, how would you prove it?”“Room, desk and car – which do you clean first?”These were four of the 25 oddball questions used by interviewers in 2011 according to glassdoor.com. Some of them test the candidate's analytical skills. Some test the candidate's presence of mind. And a lot of them are plain absurd.The Mumbai based theatre company, Akvarious Productions is currently showcasing its production of THE INTERVIEW at Jagriti Theatre in Bangalore. Written by Siddharth Kumar and directed by Akarsh Khurana, The Interview is a winner of four Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) awards and was selected for the Hot Ink festival of new plays in New York.A bright young man, holding his resume close, waits nervously at the reception of one of the country’s largest corporations. Minutes later he is called in for his job interview. The candidate played by Karan Pandit, is hooked up to a lie detector and asked the set of questions that many of us will resonate with. The meek, eager to please and desperate candidate is offered a drink of alcohol to make him relax and told that he could be truthful as the interview had not yet begun. That is just the beginning of this dark comedy."If you were an animal what animal would you be?"The candidate puffs himself up and inquires, "A tiger?""Why? Do you see yourself as extinct?"The candidate retracts and offers an alternative answer hoping it would resonate with the interviewer and asks, "A Panda?"As the interview progresses the plot unfolds and a second interviewer comes into ask, "A lotus doubles in size each day In 14 days the lotus will cover the entire tank.  In how many days will the tank be half covered?" Were they making fun of companies that ask candidates such questions as a way of selecting them? Perhaps. Maybe the punch was aimed at the nature of careers that so many of us pursue. At the very least the play should discourage people from conducting what are loosely defined as "stress interviews".The script is tight and moves from the hilarious to absurd to thought provoking commentary on the role of corporations and its minions. A special mention must be made of Karan who brings out many facets of the character by highly nuanced performance. Kashin Shetty as the interviewer starts off well but gets tempted every now and then to try too hard. Certainly worth a watch.Rating 3.5 out of 5Candidate #1: Karan Pandit | Secretary: Prerna Chawla / Amrita Puri | Interviewer: Kashin Shetty| Keith: Adhir Bhat / Siddharth Kumar / Tariq Vasudeva | Candidate #2: Adhaar Khurana / Siddharth KumarStage Design, Light Design, Costumes: Akarsh Khurana