JP Theatre, AP an experimental theatre of Jayaprakash Reddy (JP), a popular ‘bad guy' of Telugu cinema, presented a different kind of theatre— Alexander . This solo play was staged at Ravindra Bharati.
The story is of a retired army man who wants to help people with problems. His phone is helpline for trouble ridden people who seek his advice. Alexander wants to negate the evils of the two vices to which he has surrendered by extending a helping hand to ones in need.
A good samaritan
Being a good Samaritan he saves people from taking extreme steps, relieving them from pain, by simply advising them. His phone constantly rings as there are many help seekers. However, these voices come from wings.
Script writer Poosala picked some of the day to day tragic events of human misery from print and electronic media for the theme. They included subjects like acid attacks on girls by the disgruntled lovers, factionist rivalry not allowing their wards to get married, and causing their suicides, problems faced by ST candidates and spouses blaming each other for their inability to bear children, and the man doubting the character of his wife and so on.
The final problem he deals with is what he is also subjected to – smoking and alcoholism.
First-of-its-kind
At the end of these unending question-answer sessions, Alexander falls victim of his own vices. A mature and sensible actor JP filled the stage with his frequent movements, once to get the phone and at another time seeking for his liquor bottle and cigarettes. The last scene where he collapses on bed, was moving. This one-man theatre is the first of its kind on Telugu stage. This was an experiment that the Guntur-born but brought up in Nalgonda JP had attempted at.
