In 1972, as newly-minted graduates of Modern School, Delhi, Feisal Alkazi and Arun Kukreja started a theatre group with some buddies. They nurtured it through good times and bad but never imagined it would be still around, 50 years later, having created a formidable legacy. Ruchika Theatre Group continues to thrive regaling audiences with its impactful productions that never shy away from upsetting the apple cart.
“Having a very secure core audience has helped Ruchika reach this point. I believe we have developed a different kind of audience, one that has stayed with us over the years,” says Alkazi, also an educationist, social activist, author, master trainer, with over 200 plays to his directorial credit. Several of their members have made a name for themselves, such as Alok Nath, Sohaila Kapur, Neena Gupta, Pawan Malhotra and Harsh Chhaya etc.
The troupe has regularly presented a season of at least three new productions every year. Performed in English, Hindi, or Urdu, the focus has been on plays of social relevance. “Our plays reflect the feedback of audience and the performers. As a close-knit group of actors who have been together for over 45 years, and newcomers as young as 16 years of age, we give importance to everyone’s views,” he adds. Some of their best-known productions include Strindberg’s The Father, Dorfman’s The Women, Kurosawa’s Rashomon, Marsha Norman’s Night Mother, Goldemberg’s Letter’s Home, Dario Fo’s Female Parts, Mohan Rakesh’s Aashad Ka Ek Din and Lehron ke Raj Hans, Mahasweta Devi’s Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Ma, Elkunchwar’s Rakt Pushp, Vijay Dan Detha’s Odhni, and Jaywant Dalvi’s Rishte Naate.
Alkazi fondly recalls some of the defining moments of his 50-year stint as the head of Ruchika Theatre Group. The first of these was performing Henrik Ibsen’s play Doll House at the Gaiety Theatre in Simla. As he walked on to the century-old stage, to perform this seminal work on female emancipation penned over 100 years ago, he felt a strange sense of déja vu. Another time was when his performance of Ariel Dorfman’s play based on his book Widows in Delhi, coincided with the arrest of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London, who was the book’s antagonist. Also, when his play Noor was performed for a largely Indian audience in San Francisco, a section of the audience walked out in a huff after a hijra opened the show with an evocative description of the art of making love to a man. Experiences that displayed the power of theatre.
Ruchika Theatre Group has elaborate plans to mark this momentous occasion. They began the year with their play Devyani, which opened in February at the revamped Triveni Kala Sangam Auditorium. In March, they performed Noor based on the life of Noorjehan. There will also be events in different parts of India and abroad. Noor, along with A Quiet Desire and Adhe Adhure – a play based on Tagore’s alleged relationship with his sister-in-law Kadambari Devi, and Mohan Rakesh’s Hindi classic respectively—will be performed in the US later this year.
Amidst larger productions, the group also plans to keep busy with smaller plays at ‘Teesri Manzil’, an experimental performance space at Alkazi’s home. He has worked extensively in the area of children’s theatre and wrote Rang Biranga Rangmanch (published by National Book Trust) which sold over 30,000 copies. Not one to ever sit idle, he has also directed two serials, 32 documentaries and short films, and has won numerous awards. His recently published book Enter Stage Right: the Alkazi/Padamsee Family Memoir, did well in its English version and is set to be available in Hindi soon.
Believing that the Group has evolved immensely over the years, Alkazi says, “In recent years, we have been travelling with our plays a lot. The actors were keen to travel because the standard of our theatre is very high. It’s also an incredible bonding experience. Several marriages have also taken place within the group, over the years!”
The deep-set power of theatre is what Alkazi hopes will be Ruchika Theatre Group’s legacy in years to come—where art reigns supreme, money has no influence, and a love of theatre survives everything, including a global pandemic.