The one and only M Boyer is launching a new tiatr next season - after four years. Vinayak Naik talks to the living legend M anuel Santana Aguiar - does the name strike a bell? Well, it's M Boyer's real name. The man who has been at the forefront of tiatr for over 50 years, has written, produced and directed 24 plays and has given a staggering 5000 performances in his lifetime - the only Goan tiatrist to have been honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award - is once again hitting the stage with Ek Ghor Char Vantte, in October. Excerpts from an interview:
How long does it take you to script a play?
I am a perfectionist. I take about a month on an average to write a tiatr. I deliberately write slowly to avoid mistakes. It may surprise you, but I have perhaps a strange way of writing my dramas. I write the ending first.
Why did you change your name?
Our school authorities in those days would not allow students to engage in such extra curricular activities and fined them 10 rupees if they did. So I used another name to avoid detection - M Boyer. M stands for my name, Manuel, and Boyer after the famous Hollywood actor Charles Boyer; I was a great fan of his.