Batting for a second innings

He is unhappily married who believes that his wife is never satisfied while she thinks he is cheating on her. Their growing mistrust in each other leads to demanding a divorce from each other. And this common scenario is the premise for Felicity theatre's home production 'Jab We Separated', written and directed by Rakesh Bedi and stars Rahul Bhuchar, Shweta Tiwari and the director himself.

The play depicts the mindset of modern-day couples whose lives are woven in the fragile fabric of mistrust. The narrative tells us that when confronted with infidelity or regular nagging, the spouses nowadays resort to the only shortcut they have at hand divorce. "The age difference between husband and wife has decreased nowadays. That also plays a major role in the modern days' marriages." Despite financial and emotional independence, couples have become myopic in their views and daring too. They feel that separating is not the end of the world and life will go on somehow.  Sadly no one wants to give a second chance also, except the court. This play is primarily the story of those six months, which are given by court before you finally divorce," says the director Rakesh Bedi. Talking about how the plot of such a play came to his mind he adds, " In an era where nuclear families don't have any elders to guide them, the court acts as one. Even if you file for a divorce, the court suggests that you take another six months to make things better. But people don't realise that as well. They feel like itna time bita liya to thode din aur hi sahi.."

Talking about the how the play has grown from the day of its initial release Piyush Sharma, the Vice-President of Felicity theatre, comments, " Jab We Separated has been staged in Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur, and Mumbai with multiple shows in each city. Felicity theatre has organized 12 packed shows for the play since it's premiere in September 2018. The play has been heavily promoted across all online and offline channels throughout the country."

Humour is the prime essence of this whole play. When asked why he chose humour to portray such a deep and dark subject, Rakesh says, "Humour according to me is elementary and whatever I do, whether I write or direct, I try to rope in humour because I believe that if any kind of serious subject is also wrapped under the garment of humour, the message goes down very deep and far. With humour, you can say a lot of things and get away with it, making an effect without directly affecting you."

After successfully testing the waters with the Indian audience, the theatre group plans to take this initiative abroad with two new productions this year as an attempt to promote theatre and encourage viewership. When asked about how the initiative is going to affect the modern-day couples in the outer world, the vice-president said, "We strongly believe in theatre as a strong medium for the betterment of the society. Thus, after getting such a wonderful response from our country, we intend to take this vision overseas by taking our shows to other countries like Australia, Singapore, Dubai and many more."