14/05/2025
See Theatre Group - see, explore, execute
'Hum Bhi Hai' is a character driven play which focuses primarily on the surreal nature of characters and their socio-political surroundings rather than emphasizing on any particular plot. The premise of the play is the seaside slums of Versova, Andheri but the characters hail from different parts of our country who are residing here either for many years or for a few years or even for a few months. Thus their accents are according to their place of origin which gives a very unique flavour to the acoustics of the play at the voice and speech level. It's not a mere story but an empathic view of the characters of labourers, socially rejects and so called losers of the society. Incidentally in the play comes the character of an old compassionate man who is a traveller and is going to stay in the slums for a short while. He gives them hope for a better life. Some characters love him, believe in his stories, some hate him for giving them false hope. In our production we are focusing on the eternal struggle between capitalism and socialism, exploitation of the economically backward classes by power addicts, money oriented people and flag bearers of religion. It depicts how circumstances in their lives have made them so harsh that some of them don't even fear death. These people are diligent, hardworking, talented and even intelligent but are living the kind of oppressed life which is a nightmare for the privileged class. They have accepted their fate and they have made humour, intoxication, casual s*x and abusing an escape route. We have not bound actors within the four walls of realism instead we have tried to break the fourth wall again and again in this play. We have used devised theatre, expressionism, symbolism and dark comedy to communicate the various facets of their lives or express the conflict between illusion and reality. Our group of young blood and seasoned artists aims to explore this neglected class who are constantly moving, running and crawling in the circle of comedy and pathos with death serving as the only stillness of their lives.
