Theatre time: ‘Terminal 3’ is set for staging in Hyderabad

"Terminal 3: A trilingual play written and directed by Surendra Singh Negi looks at the Covid effect in a realistic way staged in Hyderabad on March 31 and April 5

Terminal 3, a play to be staged on March 31 and April 5 in Hyderabad is a stark view of the post-pandemic world on stage. Written and directed by Surendra Singh Negi, chief coordinator of the foreign languages programme at the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), the play’s multi-layered narrative tells stories of challenging times.

The 60-minute play is trilingual with dialogues in Hindi, English and Spanish; it begins with protagonists Ana Strejilevich and Madan Laal, two old friends, accidentally meeting at an airport. The friends, also poetry lovers, recite poems in Spanish and Urdu/Hindi. Multiple stories emerge and overlap from theirunexpected encounter and the dots are quickly joined with flashbacks. The audience sees the pandemic’s impact on people from different classes and social and economic backgrounds through these two characters. Mankind had never experienced such a thing (COVID-19), says Negi. “Its magnitude impacted all of us in different ways, but the vulnerable sections — people who work in our houses (drivers and house help ) and those who migrated from rural areas for work suffered the most. Their dreams shattered with the lockdown.”

Negi explains why the play also depicts death as a concept: “It was the first time in recent years that we saw death so closely, and on such a regular basis. To write a story on the pandemic without commenting on death would have been incomplete.”

Negi began writing the script in 2023. He had originally conceived it to be a Latin-American (hence Spanish dialogues) play but writing a story in India without characters speaking in Indian languages didn’t seem apt. As the story is based in Delhi the characters speak multiple languages, including a bit of Telugu and Malayalam too.

Terminal 3’ will have its first performance at the EFLU amphitheatre on March 7. “We received a lot of praise from the audience, but not everybody could understand the play in its absoluteness as it has three different languages,” shares; adding that subtitles were added for the March 31 to April 5 show.

No Drama, Please! to stage Terminal 3 on March 31 and April 5 at Rangbhoomi by Sneha Arts, Sainikpuri and Lamakaan in Banjara Hills; Tickets: ₹200 bookmyshow.com