The first day of the theatre had a play written by Russian playwright in 1833, which was originally written in verse. [break]“The play carries the message of greed being evil and so we decided to include it in the Children Drama Festival,” said Nawarj Budhathoki, the organizer of the event. “The tale will help children learn a lesson and because it is in the form of a play, they will have fun while from learning it.”
The tale tells a story of an old fisherman and his wife. The rag-to-riches story features the couple becoming rich but then losing everything due to the greed of the wife. A golden fish that can grant them with anything they wish for gives the old couple everything that they’ve dreamt of, but they lose all their materialistic gains because the fisherman’s abusive wife keeps getting greedier.

The hour-long play was worth every minute. All the actors put up a commendable show and the background score feted well with the theme. In a country where theatre has lost all the charms with the invent of technology and television, the energy that the production team and the cast put together is worth mentioning. Shailee seemed more confident and positive about their future.
“Theatre has always fascinated me, I love acting and I believe that when you love something you should never let it go,” said Manju Devkota. The 21-year old student played golden fish and took up Arts as major so that she gets to “attend drama as a subject in her course.”
With Pushkin’s play, the Shailee Theatre has started their week-long event to mark its first anniversary. “In Nepal acting is not an honored profession, there are many social stigma attached to it but alongside the theatre field is taking baby steps, we at Shailee are taking it as positive sign,” said Shanti Giri, who played the wife’s part in the play.
Students from various schools will perform more than half a dozen plays throughout the week at the Russian Culture Center and go on till March 7.
Play this week
Dabiyeka Aawazharu on Tuesday
Torchlight on Wednesday
Mahostav on Thursday
Changa on Friday
Paach Rupaiya on Saturday
Chutti Makkai Bhutti on Sunday
The plays begin at 3pm everyday.