The rocky road of Uncoupling

Marriage is such a big part of Indian society and culture, and yet we barely want to talk about how hard it is, and the difficulties one faces in marriage. With his latest play Dreamers, director Salmin Sheriff shows the real side of marriage — the side that not many people want to talk about, as he pulls us into the lives of Maddy and Sid as they clunkily, selfishly, and naively navigate the terms of their young marriage.

“Dreamers is about a young marriage, how a young couple has dreams and aspirations and how in a marriage your dreams and aspirations become one. You’re both in this marriage together so your goals have to align. But it doesn’t always work out that way, you know. We’re all individuals, we all have out own individual wants and desires from life. A lot of young couples struggle with that when they first start out, and I think a lot of older couples will probably find themes in the play very relatable. All kinds of things can throw a marriage off-balance, especially when you’re so young and inexperienced. I’ve seen things like debt, financial pressures, social pressure, keeping up with the Joneses deeply affect marriages. That’s why I wanted to write this play, to show the inside story of a marriage in the realest possible way,” states Salmin as he lets us peer into the looking glass of Dreamers.

A mix of experienced and fresh actors like Aarti Aney, Jimmy Xavier, Supriyaa Uthaiah and Shlok Menon bring a realistic portrayal of the raw emotions and feelings that a young couple under pressure might experience. “The more experienced actors gently guide the action, while the younger, fresher actors are able to bring bundles of energy and an element of surprise to the performance.

This kind of uncertainty that they bring is so real, it makes the performance exciting because the characters are going through the same emotions. It’s been quite an interesting process, and we have really seen how life can imitate art and vice versa. When you’re young you don’t really understand everything going on around you, you don’t understand why you might be angry or sad or jealous of your husband or wife. It’s all very confusing, and the play captures those moments of high intense emotion, and why people react the way they do under pressures. We have also integrated film into the play, combining theatre with an audio-visual element. There are three or four short film pieces that fill in the blanks and give us an insight into the psychology of the characters, as well as of society,” explains Salmin who likes to integrate film, theatre, poetry and painting in his work.

There are many factors that can affect any ambitious young couple who wants certain things like a big house, nice cars or fancy holidays. Throwing more light on what theatre lovers can expect from this 1 hour, 20 minutes performance, he adds, “I wanted to explore the idea of “Will they make it?” Making it through all these different things coming at you full speed, like debt and jealousy, is not an easy feat. We all know that divorce rates are quite high nowadays, so a lot of marriages have a sense of, ‘Can we make it through the tough times?’ This is not a play about whether or not marriage and divorce are good or bad, but what happens behind closed doors. I want to reveal what takes place in thousands of homes in Bengaluru, and why. Understanding the psyche behind rocky marriages is important. Life can be tough, but it’s how you navigate through the tough times that matters. The audience can expect something relatable on stage.”

The play will be staged on Saturday April 9, 8pm and Sunday April 10, 3pm and 6:30pm at Jagriti Theatre, Whitefield, Varthur Road.