Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, May 7: Amateur Theatre group’s performance of ‘Jaayez Hatyare’, an adaptation in Hindustani of Albert Camus’s ‘Just Assassins’ by Suresh Bhardwaj and Deepa Shahi, at the K L Saigal Hall, here today, came out to be a meaningful and relevant production that raises the moral and ethical issues involved in when some members of a society resort to political violence in the name of revolution.
In the background of dearth of worthwhile drama by contemporary local playwrights on topical issues, theatre directors in the winter capital are time and again forced happily to choose such plays by international and national master whose themes have universal as well as local relevance.
Today’s play which dramatizes the human cost of political violence, by young revolutionaries, their justified revolt, uneasy brotherhood, and the superhuman efforts which they make to attune themselves to murder-and thus to show where their true faith lay, was admirably enacted by team of young actors under the direction of Mushtaq Kak.
The fast pace of the dialogue and stage movements, while establishing the intensity of emotions, resolve and conviction of young revolutionaries, also brought to fore their moral predicament in killing other human beings including children.
Then stage design of conventional proscenium settings of K L Saigal Hall was deconstructed by the horizontal layout in which audience sat and enjoyed the dramatic action which was spread to three corners of the Hall. The allusion to the actions like throwing of bomb on the Governors carriage, happening just outside the Hall’s actual windows, provided a kind of fourth dimension for the viewers.
Bare minimal props, no musical interludes and only one sound effect of the ‘buggy’ drawn by horses, were other features of today’s production which scored high on scale of realism.
Aparna Kapoor as Devika, gave an impressive display of acting skills, speech laced with emotions, as well as character’s inner struggle between physical love and idealism.
Ayan Ali as Sukhan and Mohit Verma as Vimi were brilliant in bringing out the conflict of two different kinds of idealism that informed their respective characters. Sunil Sharma as Onkar Nath, Love Anand as Vivan, Ankit Sharma as Fazal, Mridul Raj Anand as Police Chief, and Sourav Sharma as Sepahi gave good performances. Tomorrow, repeat show of ‘Jaayez Hatyare’ will be held at 6 pm.
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