Actors Jose P Raphael and K Gopalan to perform ‘Theatre Sketches’ in Thiruvananthapuram

Actors Jose P Raphael and K Gopalan continue Jose Chiramel's legacy through Theatre Sketches, performing short plays of Rabindranath Tagore, Kunjunni Mash, Jayaprakash Kuloor and so on

For actors Jose P Raphael and K Gopalan, boasting a theatre legacy of over three decades, sketches are a memory of how Jose Chiramel, their early mentor and a legend in the theatre circuit, prepared his actors before a full-length play. One of the first students to graduate from the School of Drama and Fine Arts in Thrissur, Jose Chiramel was also the founder of Thrissur Roots, a troupe in which Jose and Gopalan were testing the waters as thespians.

Even though Jose Chiramel passed away in 2006, his protégés continue this tradition of performing these multiple short plays, each lasting 10 to 15 minutes, before the actual play. “Josettan used to create these sketches for us actors to practice, similar to how an artist makes a sketch before he paints,” says Jose, who is set to perform ‘Theatre Sketches’, with Gopalan at the THAMP Theatre Excellence Awards 2025, organised by the Theatre Academy for Media and Performance (THAMP), Peroorkada.

Usually these sketches have two actors, but this number can go up to four. “Although mostly three plays are staged, we have done more than that in the past. If you are a police officer in one play, you might be a schoolteacher in the next,” says Jose.

Labelling these plays as “actor-oriented,” Jose says that the performances are not driven by the directors. The artistes are given a free rein to improvise without restrictions.

“Rabindranath Tagore has written several of these short plays to train students in Shantiniketan,” he says. “We have performed works of writers such as Kunjunni Mash, Jayaprakash Kuloor and even Anton Chekhov as sketches,” adds Jose, who has also worked in movies such as Take off, Kismath, Mikhael, Samadhana Pusthakam, Thee Kulikkum Pachai Maram (Tamil) and so on.

Gopalan and Jose have staged these sketches in West Asia, Europe and different parts of India. “When we travel with big plays, we perform this as a curtain raiser,” says the actor currently working on two plays—Vey Raja Vey directed by Shyju Anthikad and Macbeth, the Last Show.

Jose and Gopalan expect to perform three plays in around 45 minutes at THAMP — Rabindranath Tagore’s Sookshma Charcha and Rogikalude Mithram, and Shinkidi by Kunjunni Mash. “Depending on the situation, we would also like to perform Paalam written by Jayaprakash Kuloor,” says Jose.