When the curtains fell after the final act of the play by the doctors at the St Mary’s College on Sunday evening, the crowd burst into applause. With witty one-liners and a message hard to ignore, the satire had kept the audience hooked to it, but what made the play more special was that it was enacted by a team of doctors.
Keeping their surgical gloves aside, four city-based doctors decided to don the grease paint for a play aimed at spreading awareness on healthy and injury-free running.
Rajesh Vetcha, the face of Hyderabad Runners Club, was the man behind the unique initiative. He says, “It was not difficult to convince the doctors. All of them are associated with the runners club for years and they know the problems fellow-runners face. So, when I pitched the idea of doing a play rather than a regular seminar, they agreed.”
Oncologist Dr Hemant Vudayaraju feels that cracking jokes on stage was funny. “As doctors, our profession is serious and people perceive us as a gloomy lot who always talk about diseases and medicines. So, when Rajesh came up with the idea, I took it up instantly,” he says.
Echoing his fellow actor’s sentiments, Orthopedician Dr Chandrashekar Ramineni says, “Runners overexert themselves by setting up unrealistic goals. There is always a fine line between realistic running and overambitious running. There is no point in running marathons, posting it on social media and then limping at home.”
The performance they put on wouldn’t let you believe that it was their debut on stage. Gynaecologist Dr Madhumati Sanjay says, “Yes, this is my first acting experience. The idea was conceptualised a month ago; we only had two weeks to write the script.”
So, amidst their busy doctoral calls, how did they find enough time for rehearsal? Clinical Geneticist Dr Shilpa Reddy had the answer: “We created a WhatsApp group and discussed the minute details of the play. Meeting was difficult; we met just four times. Believe me, the final rehearsal was done in the morning of the performance day!” reveals Shilpa.
