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A wacky social satire

QTP's long-running play promises laughter as well as food for thought

A GOOD DOSE OF HUMOUR From "Beyond Therapy"

Every review of "Beyond Therapy" promises the same thing. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll enjoy the humour. You'll be torn apart by the underlying emotions. There's just one thing you can be sure about — this play will leave an impact.

The company behind the play is QTP, a young dynamic Mumbai-based theatre group, which was formed in 1999 by five theatre enthusiasts — Yuki Ellias, Advait Hazarat, Arghya Lahiri, Nadir Khan and Quasar Thakore Padamsee — straight out of Mumbai's Xavier's College.

Although they have performed over 20 productions so far, Quasar says, "Beyond Therapy' is perhaps our most successful in terms of number of shows." In fact, the Chennai show will be the 25th staging of the play.

"A fun play," Durang's wacky comedy revolves around a neurotic couple who find each other through the personal ads.

However, Prudence has commitment problems. And Bruce is a bisexual with a boyfriend — a jealous male lover called Bob.

Unfortunately, their trusted therapists aren't exactly the best guides to rock solid relationships. Hers is an overly macho chauvinist, who refuses to talk much. His is a warm and perhaps overly nurturing woman, who frequently hugs her patients and expresses herself through a floppy-eared Snoopy toy.

Unfit, wacky and self-centred, it remains to be seen how much these psychiatrists — who could probably use some help themselves — can do with their desperate patients. Beyond therapy? That's got to be the understatement of the year!

Apart from being exceedingly well written and hilarious, the play also has a darker, more serious undertone.

"It's a social satire," says Quasar, adding however, "but still a fun evening out." In an attempt to explain what it is about the play that has drawn so many people, and made it QTP's longest running production — though QTP deals with many forms of intensely serious theatre, he laughs, "Well, maybe it's because unlike our other plays, everyone's alive in the end. In the rest, they all die."

SHONALI MUTHALALY

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