Theatre, an immensely respected art form, needs to reach every person, believes The Theatrewalas, a group formed a year back, helmed by a veteran from the industry, Sushmaa Roshan Ahuja, along with some other theatre enthusiasts. Sushmaa is a veteran Indian director, writer, and actor who has worked extensively in theatre productions, radio, television and cinema for over five decades.
After a month-long summer camp, the group is staging three plays — I am the Best, Aadil’s Shoes, and My Buddy, My Nanba. While the first two plays are by the young actors who get an opportunity to showcase their learnings from the workshop/camp in aprofessional setting, My Buddy My Nanba is by senior actors of the team.
My Buddy My Nanba is an Indian adaptation of O Henry’s short story, After Twenty Years. It is about two childhood friends who after going their separate ways in life, promise to meet again after 20 years. But 20 years is a long time, and when they do meet at the promised time and day, are they still the same people?
“I chose this story because it is based on relationships and time,” Sushmaa says, adding, “Do
relationships change with time? Does time matter in friendship, as Balu, one of the friends asks.”
“The main plot is the same…” Sushmaa continues, “But the adaptation has brought in various different dimensions to the relationship of two childhood friends. I have added two more characters in the play that aren’t in the original story. This is a story of two young boys from Punjab and Tamil Nadu, their time spent together, two friends who cherish their everlasting friendship…”
The other two short plays are for children. “I took the original stories from Tulika Publishers, for which I have translated many books for children. These stories are also adapted for theatre
production.”
All the three plays are written and directed by Sushmaa.
The Theatrewalas is envisaged as a multi-lingual, multi-dimensional theatre group experimenting with different forms of theatre and stage craft, bringing professionally superior entertainment to neighbourhoods in suburbia South Chennai. Theatre is the art of looking at ourselves, and The Theatrewalas provide an exciting platform to do just that to both amateur and skilled artistes.
“We are working to bring theatre to the outskirts of Chennai where there is a dearth of plays around this part of town. We are focused on plays in three languages — Tamil, Hindi and English. The prefix ‘The’ to our group’s name stands for the same (Tamil, Hindi, English),” says Prasanna Rajaram, one of the members and actor. Sharing about their mission, he says, “For people in OMR, if they want to see any play, it’s a half day trip to the city because nothing happens on that side of the town, so we are trying to bring the whole theatre experience to the outskirts.”
Donor passes: Rs 200 & Rs 500. Contact: +919840821030 / +919840684440
May 14. 6 pm to 8 pm.
At Auditorium of The Hiranandani Upscale School, within the House of Hiranandani, Egattur, OMR.
rupam@newindianexpress.com
@rupsjain