Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Nov 24:The play ‘Pishach Yatra’ staged on day-12-day of the ongoing Annual Theatre Festival, while raising many questions about the male-dominated conventions, gave expressions to the inner yearnings of the female gender who given an opportunity can achieve new frontiers in life.
Written by Vikram Sharma, directed by Aditya Bhanu and presented under the banner of Hardeep Dance & Cultural Society, at Abhinav Theatre, here today, the play’s plot revolved around Kaya, a low-caste girl who marries an upper caste man but becomes a widow on the very day. The threat of being sexually exploited by village headmen and others, she flees and lands up in a whorehouse. There, her first client, a teacher, becomes her mentor and helps her to become educated. She qualifies IAS competition and is appointed as deputy commissioner in her native area only. The play ends with Kaya resolving to work for social justice. She also gets absolved from ghosts of her past life.
The actors who gave good performance were Sonam Sharma as Kaya, Aditya Bhanu as Master Dharmdas, Anroop Pathania as Vishnu Prasad, and his ghost, and Pooja Thakur as Kalavati. Others members of the cast were Rahul Khatri as Bhudrva, Kriya Bhogal as Talkhan, Drishti Rajput as Puniya and Deepika Bhagat as Bindri, Abhishek Baru as Beli Ram and Sugam Baral.
The good work done by actors was let down by production design that was marked by the sloppy transition from one scene to another. The cumbersome placement of the set with four locales almost choked the stage and led to prolonged gaps in fade-in and fade-out and actors’ scurrying to take positions.
The technical glitches: miscuing of lights, and loud background score drowning music, further added to a sense of drag. The set design was by Virji Sumbli, music by Sunil Sharma, costumes by Shilaka Sharma, make-up by Shammi Dhamir and light by Sidharth Vikram and Pankaj Sharma.
Tomorrow, Rajneesh Gupta’s play ‘Tandav’ will be staged by Viraj Kala Kendra.
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