SURABHI THEATRE 
127 years FAMILY BASED THEATRE GROUP

 'surabhi ' a unique institution of family theatre , has an unrivalled place in the history of Indian Theatre. This is the only professional Family Theatre which has had the unbroken history of 127 years of glory. Achieving continuous success of over a Century by one family is unheard of elsewhere.

Many Theatre companies have come into living along with 'Surabhi' but have dwindled away slowly, while 'Surabhi' continued passing the art form down the generations. Varied mythological, social, historical & folklore plays were staged by surabhi down the years which provided entertainment along with a message. Surabhi Family does everything by itself. Everyone from an infant to the Oldest - they themselves were Artistes, Technicians, Executives, Musicians, Helpers and what not, everything. 3 days week, they engage their audiences with song, drama and the astounding special effects that this SURABHI is famous for. They are no where inferior to the cinematic techniques and it's a fact that no theatres can recreate the magical tricks the way Surabhi does on the Stage.

 

A very large family with 60 to 65 troupes once, has now five teams continuing the Legacy. And with this year SURABHI has completed 1 25 years in furthering the Art.

The history of Surabhi dates back to 1 885 AD. The families Are Marathis or Are Kapus migrated from Maharashtra. Settled in Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh and adopted leather — puppetry as their profession. Vanarasa Govinda Rao, hailing from one such family became a good musician and excelled in leather puppetry.

A marriage was being performed in the houses of Rami Reddy and Chenna Reddy, village elders of Surabhi Reddivaripalli in 1 885 AD. Govinda Rao was invited to stage a puppet show on this occasion. He taught the nuances of a play to his family members, constructed a makeshift stage, illuminated it with flambeaus (torches) and staged the Keechaka Vadha play, instead of the puppet show. Thus was born Surabhi Theatre - a new form of entertainment hitherto unknown in this region.

At Surabhi, theatre is an inseparable part of the artists life. Right from birth to death. The Surabhi members lead a simple life inside the theatre, they cook their own food - often with make up on their faces. Off the stage they are just ordinary people doing the common domestic chores all by themselves cleaning and cooking rice fetching buckets of water.

Painting the sets, erecting the stage are all part and parcel of their daily routine. Roles are interchangeable and most of the actors are equipped to play the major parts. There is no room for one upmanship — the artiste automatically knows if she plays the lady-in-waiting today. She will be the princess tomorrow.

The charm of Surabhi theatre comes from the use of the painted backdrops. From making costumes, to painting the curtains, to setting up the stage. The artists do every job themselves. Generally they do not use acrylic or oil paints, as the curtains would break when folded. So they use water colors and organic powders as far as possible, and the magic of the natural colors is all too discernible.

Surabhi is capable of creating incredible magical creating a space in his cave and bringing the object of his love to life for an instant, beautiful maidens getting transformed into dogs by evil magicians, arrows exploding in a mid-air collision emitting fire and smoke, abhimanyu shooting an arrow into the sky leading to rain that douses

the fire, Seshirekha lifted from her bedroom when asleep, Ghatotkacha swallowing a series of laddus that come flying towards him, Narada walking in the clouds... all such scenes are executed to perfection within a fraction of a second, with special sound effects and equal ease. The audience can't help but blink and pinch themselves, gasping at how they are witness to these wonders in real life, with actors literally creating magic on stage. By far the most gripping sequence is the one in Maya Bazaar, in which the hero Abhimanyu and heroine Sashirekha yearn for each other and sing a song at two different Locations, addressing a common moon on a starry night. This is done by painting two to three different scenes on mosquito nets and alternating the soft lighting to create a sense of different locations simultaneously. Such an arrangement is known as Gas Setting in Surabhi parlance.

The splendid sets and scintillating special effects speak the language of Indian folk arts and culture to lure the audiences. Surabhi tells stories from the myths, folk lore and the epics, laced with drama and humour and sprinkled with song and dance. "It may take up to six months to prepare a play for presentation but then it is time well spent, for the play has to last for generations to come. When they plan a production, they weave the scripts round the sets and the special effects to be used. The scripts are developed by a team from the mythological and folk stories present in manuscripts. Some Surabhi team members have pursued advanced studies in performing arts.

Surabhi has many firsts to its credit. Till 1 885, men used to enact the roles of women and women were not allowed to perform on stage. Surabhi was the first path-breaking group which introduced women artistes, the harmonium music, gas lighting and colourful settings on the stage shows. They were also the first people who started making makeshift tents. 

There have been many unusual instances on the Surabhi stage. Venku Bai (who was actually pregnant) was performing the role of pregnant women in 1907. She went into labour during a song. The curtain went down and a daughter that they later named Kamala Bai was born! Originally the audience thought that it was all a part of the show, but when they realized it was real, they showered money on the stage.

Another real life instance: Aveti Manohar (cousin of Sri Surabhi Nageswara Rao) suffered a massive heart attack while on stage. He was immediately replaced by Bhojraj who closely resembled Aveti Manohar and the play continued. Even the audience could not spot the difference between the two. People came to know about Aveti Manohar's death only from the dailies.

 

Besides its own theatre, Surabhi also stands for love, affection and hospitality which are hallmarks of Indian culture. All its members, deeply attached to its roots, are down to earth human beings and are a blend of qualities rarely found these days. The rituals, customs, traditions, practices, discipline and punctuality of the Surabhi team is worthy of emulation.

The entry of cinema, TV and dish channels has dealt a blow to the future of Surabhi. Over a period of years, the production costs have risen exponentially. But despite all financial odds, Surabhi has managed to run its shows. With moderately priced tickets. This is one factor that has kept the culturally rich plays within the common man's reach.

Surabhi has always commanded a respectable audience, for the past 1 25 years. And it will continue to have the admiration of the common man. Theatre is not just an integral part of Surabhi lives; rather, this stage itself is their life. There are born on stage, we grow up on stage educated on stage and finally die on stage.

Recently successfully performed in frace tour 

Surabhi theatre

telugu lalithakalathoranam

Pubcil gardens

Nampally

Hyderabad

Andhra Pradesh(state), INDIA

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Donate to Surabhi
If you wish to support Surabhi theatre and let the traditional theatre to survive, please reach us through the below phone/email.
Mobile: +91 9912924723
Email : surabhitheatre@gmail.com

website : surabhidrama.com