Perfection is something that is craved by everyone. But what happens when everything in your life is perfect and there is no room for imperfections? P.S I Don’t Love You by the theatre company WeMove explores this. A romantic comedy following the story of a couple who are annoyingly perfect for each other, the plot takes a turn when the girl realises that total perfection is actually a flaw and craves an adrenaline rush to mess things up.
Talking about the play, WeMove founder Abhishek Iyengar shares, “We perform plays that are contemporary in nature with satirical themes. They reflect the society and its issues which the layman can relate to. The perception of theatre today is that it’s meant for the intellectual and we want to change this.”
Started by a him and a group of friends in 2006 Bangalore, they used social media to help spread the word. “A couple of us came together on Orkut (it was popular at that time). The idea was to create a platform where art meets business. We initially pooled in our resources and started by performing plays in Bangalore; we received good response from the audience,” states the 29-year old. By 2011, the company founders had turned to theatre full-time. WeMove Theatre Company has since staged plays at Chennai, Mysore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune. In a given year, they perform about 15 plays -- about two every month. With just six full-time employees, the rest of the cast and crew are volunteers who work part time.
WeMove is also planning a move in Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune, besides a tie-up with different theatre groups in the cities they perform. So why the name WeMove in the first place? “Well, the general perception in our company is that whatever work we do here is a team effort so hence the word ‘We’ and since we travel a lot for our plays, we felt the word ‘Move’ would be apt,” shares Abhishek.
The company which stages original as well as adaptations, just makes sure that they perform plays that are written by Indians playwrights. “We feel there is so much Indian literature that can be portrayed so well on stage that we don’t feel the need to adapt something from foreign playwrights.”
As for the theatre scene in Hyderabad, he feels, “I think that theatre as medium of entertainment has been forgotten. These days only serious plays are being performed that can be appreciated by a certain section of the audience. With our plays, we are trying to bridge this gap and make it accessible to everyone by making them fun and entertaining and at the same time conveying a message as well.” WeMove will be performing in Hyderabad a second time this Saturday after their Malgudi Daze. “After the first play we had people from Hyderabad reaching out to us via Facebook to ask us when we would be performing next in the city. So we’re happy to be back.” P.S I Don’t Love You will be staged twice at Lamakaan on December 7 at 6 and 7:30 pm.