Stage productions in Coimbatore get a much needed update with the Dot Theatre Company

If there ever was a more enthusiastic group of youngsters in Coimbatore’s theatrescape, it would have to be Mohammed Lehry and Amrith Jayan. The newest entrants in the city’s dwindling theatre scene, their three-week-old venture called Dot Theatre is already down one production, has an original script in the works and is working on multiple artist collaborations. Envisioned as an artiste-enabler group, this theatre company aims at highlighting the need for young blood and diverse scripts in Coimbatore’s performing arts circles. “When we were growing up in the city, there used to be theatre festivals and other plays taking place on a regular basis. But, now productions have been reduced to the occasional supper theatre comedies,” rues the 20-year-old co-founder Mohammed Lehry. 

Straight talk
Founded on the ideology that art should question status quo about the way people think and why things are the way they are, co-founder Amrith believes that the plays that they showcase are an attempt to create an opportunity for dialogue. “We have a common understanding of what theatre means to us, individually. If I could quote someone talking about art, it would be the artiste Banksy, who said, ‘Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.’ You could call this the trademark of our productions,” shares the 18-year-old, who is still a student of Theatre Arts at Christ University.  

Welcome to the show
With themes that deal with social realism and existentialism in focus, Mohammed, also the writer and director of the troupe, tells us that the play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett was key in his formative years as a theatre enthusiast. “His ability to allow the audience to make sense of the incoherent and strange is something that I particularly admire. You can look forward to a lot of absurdist expression in our future plays,” he says. While the two are looking to pursue their MA in Theatre Studies, they assure us that Dot Theatre is just getting started and one can look out for workshops and productions over the course of the next couple months.