PATNA: Come May and the city will witness one of the most memorable one-act play festival from May 3 to 7. The five-day extravaganza will showcase 10 plays featuring prominent names from the theatre world.
Titled ‘Ekant Ke Raang: Ekal Natya Mahotsava’, it will be an ensemble of plays to be performed by teams from Mumbai, Pune and local theatre groups, which will be staged at Kalidas Rangalaya. Organized by Natmandap, the festival will provide a platform to the theatre lovers of the city to exchange their cultural ideas and also a distinctive and unique cultural experience.
The festival will be inaugurated by prominent theatre critic and former DU professor Mahesh Anand. Soon after the inauguration, the festival will open with Manabendra Tripathy’s play based on Ganjan Madhav Muktibodh’s story –‘Samjhauta’. Tripathy is an NSD graduate and runs a theatre group in Mumbai.
The next two days, a theatre artists from Patna Mona Jha will present her play ‘Akeli Aurat’, followed by Vindo Kumar’s ‘Amritsar Aa Gaya Hai’ and Javed Akhtar Khan’s ‘Tras’ and ‘Bhagin Meri Saathin’.
However, the major attraction of the festival will be the play, `Lihaf ‘, based on Ismat Chugtai’s story and directed by Naseeruddin Shah. The one-act play will be performed by Naseer’s daughter Hiba Shah on May 7.
Ojash from Pune will also add to the charm of the festival as she is all set to perform her play, ‘Le Mashale’, on May 6 based on the struggle of Manipuri poet and activist Irom Sharmila. Ojash has performed her oneact play in several states. Javed Akhtar of Natmandap says, “Patna and theatre are two inseparable entities, and we are delighted to present the first ever one-act play festival in the city. Over the years, Natmandap has become an important landmark in the cultural calendar of the city providing a unique and vibrant theatre experience and promoting art and culture among the people here.”
“It would be a real treat for the people who love to watch plays. It is for the first time that such an effort has been made to stage one-act plays in series. We are all looking forward to Hiba Shah and Ojash’s performance,” said a theatre activist, Rajeev Srivastava.