It was a common love for theatre that brought together Dwij Vasawada and Preksha Trivedi, a project manager in a cab aggregator company and a content analyst in a media firm, to form Coliseum Productions over a year ago in a small room over two cups of coffee and a strong script in their hands.
The same production house managed to attract an almost full-house at Ravindra Bharati on Thursday evening with their second production Shamus. An adaptation of Anthony Shaffer’s iconic play Sleuth, Shamus did absolute justice to the stage.
Tharun Bhasker
The intriguing story about a crime fiction novelist (Andrew) and a young actor (Milo) who is in a relationship with the former’s wife, kept everyone on the edge of their seats. The story is a complex take on human psyche and how merciless mind games can shape a person’s psychology for better or for worse. While the first part of the story shows Andrew’s game play to terrorise Milo into staying away from his wife, the second part depicts Milo’s revenge.
Jay Hiranadani
From the meticulously built set to Jonas David’s portrayal of Andrew, the lead character, the play gave testimony to the hard work that had gone into its production.
So why did these two theatre fanatics choose Coliseum as the name of their production house? “We do theatre for different groups, and we wanted to bring forward a huge, globally known script to Hyderabad. So we thought of Macbeth as a project. But we were not allowed to stage it without a name for our production team, so we just randomly came up with the name Coliseum. No fancy story,” Dwij explains.
Preksha
The avowed purpose of Coliseum? “We want to produce projects that add value to the theatre community in Hyderabad and get more and more people into theatre — to either be a part of the audience or the production. We want to be grand and big” explains Dwij.
Interestingly, a huge team of 20 interns was hired to just market and promote the play. “We wanted a group that exudes young, vibrant energy and those who share our passion. And that is exactly what we got,” says Preksha, the executive producer of the play.
Namrata
Meanwhile, Jonas David, who played Andrew, spoke about his character, his love for theatre and where he sees Hyderabad’s theatre scene in the next decade. “I absolutely loved Andrew’s role. It is so layered and grey, there is a constant turmoil inside him.”
In the audience was Ishmeet, who, along with her group of international students from University of Hyderabad’s Study in India Programme, had come to watch the play. The entire group was enthralled by Jonas David’s performance. much like everyone else.
HT02
