Baaghi Albele

The Company Theatre presents

Baaghi Albele

Directed by Atul Kumar

This masterpiece, directed by Atul Kumar, pairs comic absurdity with grim reality. Within the dismal setting of Indian bans, censorship, and general crackdowns on comedians, journalists, writers, and artists, absolutely all stakeholders participate in this comedy. 

Adapted from Nick Whitby’s ‘To Be Or Not To Be’, this play follows Johny & Minnie Makhija, husband, and wife are famous actors from a renowned theatre company in Ludhiana. During a performance of Hamlet, a young and handsome soldier of an underground rebel organisation B.O.L (Sukhwinder Singh) leaves just as Johny begins the soliloquy, "to be or not to be” leaving Johny in a rage and Minnie with a new secret admirer.

A short time later, following the prohibition orders of the government, all performances are stopped, theatres are closed and so begins the chaos that ensues with the artists being forced to hide underground while also plotting a movement to bring back theatre and live performances.

While the plot is intense, the play is an out-and-out comedy with wacky characters leading a narrative whose subtext is rather dramatic. It's bizarre yet thoughtful, hysterically funny yet very powerful as it highlights how artists, even to this day, constantly have to grapple with restraints imposed on them by various sections of society.

An adaptation of Nick Whitby's 'To Be Or Not To Be'

A play based on the motion picture by Ernst Lubitsch