Hill Thespians save the day with a riveting performance
Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Mar 15: Academy of Art, Culture and Languages was caught on the wrong foot on the opening day of its much-awaited Theatre Festival which started at the Abhinav Theatre, here today.
A sudden power outage just before the opening time of the coveted theatre festival being organized after a gap of two-years exposed the ill-preparedness of the Academy as its emergency back-up generator at the Abhinav Theatre could not operate for lack of timely sanction of funds for diesel to run it. Thanks to the bureaucratic model introduced by the present in-charge Secretary, an IAS officer, where even minor and routine matters await disposal for days.
The theatre aficionados were in for a further shock as the in-charge Secretary, who inaugurated the Festival of Plays 2020-2021 as the ‘mukhia’ of the organization failed to even apologize for the delay to the audience who had to wait for almost an hour before the doors of the Abhinav Theatre were thrown open.
Thankfully, the day was saved by the riveting performance of the young cast of Hill Thespian Theatre Group which presented the play Jayaz Hatyare, the Hindi adaptation of Albert Camus’s French play ‘Les Justes’ by Suresh Bharadwaj and Deepa Sahi.
Directed by Sunil Sharma, the play revolves around young revolutionaries looking for an opportunity to throw a bomb on British India Governor. The party’s central character, Vimmi, goes to the Governor’s bungalow but seeing children in the buggy, comes back without completing the task. This leaves the second member of the team, Sukhen, very angry. Other members agree with Vimmi’s view that it was right to not target innocent children. Next time, Vimmi bombs the Governor and loudly shouts ‘Inquilab Zindabad’. To avenge the assassination of the Governor, the British government orders arrest of Vimmi and he is hanged. The play ends with Devika, a female member of the group offering to throw the next bomb.
The actors in different roles were Sunil Sharma as Onkar, Hempreet Kour as Devika, Ankit Sharma as Sukhen, Abhishake Sharma as Vimmi, Seeta Kumari as Biwi, Yuvraj Sharma as Vivan and Rishiv Prabhakar as Police chief.
Music was designed by Jaan Mohammad and Lucky Gautam, Lights by Seeta Kumari, Costumes by Aashima Dutta, Sets by Rohit Kumar Heer. Abhishake Sharma assisted in Direction.
Tomorrow, the Punjabi play ‘Loha Kutt’ will be presented by Manoranjan Kala Kendra.
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