It wouldn’t be wrong to say that theatre is one of the most expressive art forms around. And it also wouldn’t be wrong to say that in the last two years, Hyderabad has learnt how to express itself beautifully. Thanks to the theatre culture in the city that has been booming with an increase in the diversity and number of local theatre groups.
One such group, which has been creating and staging new plays every month, is the Rangeen Sapney Theatre (RST) performing arts group. Surender Sahil Verma, the man behind RST worked with many theatre groups before taking the leap to start one of his own. RST happened two years ago and they have staged more than 17 plays until now. Most of them have been written and directed by Surender. Keeping the audience’s interests in mind, most of the plays which the group stages are new and they don’t like to repeat their work. The chemistry between the RST’s actors and director was another thing to reckon with as they got up early in the morning to rehearse for the play Udhaar Ka Pati, which was staged at Phoenix Arena on Saturday. The hilarious play, written by Dr Vanmaala Bhawaalkar, revolves around a woman who is forced to hire a fake husband for one night as she had been lying to her relatives about this for years. The team took around 60 days to conceptualise the story and get the play ready to perform on a stage.
The actors of RST come from different walks of life — while many are from IT, one is a practising psychologist and another a businessman. Ishmeet Kaur, a psychologist by profession, who has been acting with several other groups as well, says, “Theatre teaches you to keep an open mind. Every group has a different approach and the learning experience varies from one group to another.” Another artiste, Qudrat Bhatia, feels real theatre is what happens off-stage than on-stage. Fellow actor Shreya also feels that appreciation from a live audience is the kick which motivates them to work harder and deliver their best.
