How is it like doing the same thing a 1000 times over nine long years? “It’s overwhelming,” Amal Rajdev gushes enthusiastically. Coming Sunday, Amal and wife Divya Lakshmi are celebrating, in the capital city, 1000 stages of Premalekhanam, a play they both have been acting in since 2008.
No doubt Vaikom Muhammad Basheer’s Kesavan Nair and Saramma had once thrown a barbed shaft at caste and class divide. In modern times, the couple helped it go up the ladder, to cross many a geographical barrier and boundary with the play.
“If we take the exact stats, the 1000th stage is already over. And if asked about the 1001st stage, I may not exactly be able to remember that. We performed from stage after stage with no timer turned on. Now that the hour has come to celebrate, that’s it,” says Amal. The play is directed by Soorya Krishnamoorthy.
Both professional and personal lives have been ‘happening’ for the theatre couple. They travelled across countries and continents, redefined theatre appreciation and became dad and mom to two little boys, all in this time span.
“The play is not stage specific, for it is devised to fit into an arena format. Audience surround us from all four sides. We hide nothing from them. We set our venues during wedding ceremonies, birthday parties, get-togethers and more. In the mornings, we went to college and school campuses, took workshops. The play was our tool to teach theatre to the new generation students,” says Amal.
In Amal’s words, the husband-wife chemistry works well. A Bharatanatyam graduate, Lakshmi is more a theatre person now. “It stands me on a vantage point when my wife is paired opposite me. After each stage, we do the stocktaking on the way back. There is a good give and take between us,” he explains.
When Lakshmi was expecting their first child, she never put rehearsals and performance on the backburner. She got busier with the second one inside, when the Akademi tour was in full spate. The eldest boy is a fifth grader and the younger is a two-year-old now.
Amal is only happy to take Premalekhanam to another 1000 stages or more than that. “Theatre is not a thing I am tired of doing, and this play specifically. There are opportunities and risks equally involved, still I am loving it,” he says.
A live, on-stage, promo trailer of the Premalekhanam happened in Manaveeyam Veedhi a couple of days ago. The event begins at 6.30pm in Tagore Hall.
