Theater Group No Drama, Please! ‘Khachar Pakhi’, a play on trauma and identity, staged

in new hindi drama Khachar Pakhi, To be staged in Hyderabad on November 8, the audience meets an unnamed woman – who plays the lead role on stage – yet the story is not about one woman alone. Writer and director Surendra Singh Negi says, “This is a story that resonates with many women in India who have experienced sexual harassment or abuse and the trauma that follows.”

The 90-minute play, performed by three actors, Aditya R, Seema Rajpal and Shafaq Javed, marks the fourth original production by Negi’s theater group. This brings to the forefront the long-lasting effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. It begins with a woman meeting someone in a café, though it is never revealed whether that “someone” is a woman, or living or dead. Through their conversation, the audience learns that she once slapped a man during a job interview – the drama delves into what led to that act and, ultimately, the reason behind it. Nagy says, “Through fragmented memories and blurred boundaries between truth and illusion, the narrative underlines how trauma disrupts perception and resists coherent representation.”

Surendra Singh Negi Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The story unfolds through dialogue between the two main characters and a waitress in the café. Despite the limited setting, the play remains entertaining. Taking inspiration from post-dramatic theatre, Nagy uses dialogue with deliberate pauses, psychological shifts and layered imagery to produce a complex, non-linear narrative. “Traumatic stories are not always told directly or realistically. People react to trauma in different ways – so there is complexity,” he explains.

Negi’s two decades of observation and research on cases of sexual harassment and abuse form the foundation of the play. “It hasn’t been easy – neither for me nor for the actors,” he says.

Artists present a scene during rehearsal. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The title of the play is written in Hindi. khachar pakhi – meaning “caged bird” – takes inspiration from Rabindranath Tagore’s poem, written 130 years ago. The poem contains a dialogue between two birds: one caged, the other free. “They discuss freedom, imprisonment and the meaning of life,” explains Negi, who is also a musician. “That’s the kind of exchange you see between two women in this play.”

After the Hyderabad premiere, the play will travel to Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar.

Hindi play Khachar Pakhi will be staged at Lamakan on November 8 at 8 pm; entry fee