KATHMANDU, Feb 4: The premiere of a musical play ‘Witch’, a wordless tale of love, jealousy and superstition, was held on Friday at Sarwanam Theater, Kalikasthan. The play directed by American theater student Peter Seifarth was organized in association with Fermentation Theater and Danfe Theater. The assistant directors of the play are Jess Bryant and RK Mehta Roshan, while four characters including Samrant Thapa, Roshani Syangbo, Mani K Rai and RK Mehta Roshan have played pivotal roles.

The play begins with a soft musical piece played backstage while on stage is seen a woman’s spirit sauntering amidst a lingering trail of lights. With her exiting from the stage the story progresses as a flashback where the friendship between three friends is portrayed. Their friendship witnesses many shades of playfulness and togetherness until a girl enters their lives. 

When two of the friends approach the girl, she chooses to go with the one she loves, and this invites jealousy among the boys. The story then revolves around the couple that gets married and their struggles in life. The girl later realizes that she cannot have any kids, and goes through numerous adversities due to the same. She is ill-treated and looked down upon. For not having kids, people gradually start considering her as a witch. 

Dramatized under Forum Theater, which is also known as the Theatre of the Oppressed, the play delves deep on the characters’ psychosocial aspects. As plays directed under Forum Theater demand exploring solution through discussion and debate, the play ends by raising several questions. Although missing out on many elements of drama, the play succeeds to connect the audience most of the time. The limited numbers of actors have put their right and required effort to make the audience connect with every scene. 

A mixture of joy, grief, fear and thriller, the play is well executed through physical expressions and mimes. A lights’ wire used as symbol for water, stars, ring and fetus among other things was the only prop that was beautifully utilized throughout the play. The synchronization of every musical piece with action carried out by the characters added an extra charm to the play.

“Having experience in theaters for the past 12 years, I should say that I had a uniquely new experience while learning and working with the techniques of Forum Theatre,” said 33-year-old Samrant Thapa, one of the lead characters. The play also featured actors who are new to the theater world. “As this is my second play, I had to prepare myself to give my best. Although it seemed a little challenging to enact without a script in the first week, the rehearsals went quite smooth after some time,” said 29-year-old Roshani Syanbo, another lead character.

“As many social issues surrounding women are comparatively high in Nepal, we decided to come up with a play that depicts the situation of a woman when she is under certain circumstances. The reason that I chose to have no dialogue is my desire to imply that theater can be understood by anyone, even without words,” said director Peter Seifarth.

The play is being staged from February 2-10 at 1 pm and 5 pm, except on Thursdays.