The play was staged on the penultimate day of the 21-day Kathmandu International Theatre Festival 2010 which concluded successfully amidst tears of joy and appreciation on December 7.[break]
The festival gave tastes of all kinds of plays from around the world – from puppetry in Pacotile, Mime in Death of a Scarecrow, musicals in the German extravaganza of James Joyce Cycle in III Parts and theatre of gestures with masks in the endearing drama, Andre and Dorine. Amidst the performances of the trained theatre artists of the world, Karnali Natya Samuha Mugu (Karnali Theatre Group Mugu), a humble group of theatre lovers with a purpose to raise awareness in the remote areas of Karnali, presented their unwritten and improvised play with Sunil Pokharel, the man behind the festival in the directorial seat.
The play is a painful and poignant expression of the contradiction of dreams and reality of people in Karnali. As the audience laughed at every whimsical exaggeration of non-existent developments in the region, witty political satires, humorous dialogues and funny expressions, within themselves they were deeply confounded by what they were laughing at.
Karnali is presented as a utopia where there is no corruption, crime, poverty or any power cuts but equally blessed prosperity on everyone. It mocks the capital for being delusional in terms of decentralized developments, and it mocks the people in power who have done nothing but misuse Nepal’s own resources and beg for loans from external donors.
What was presented in the play was all a dream, and the realization pricks the heart and conscience of each and everyone in the audience, aware of what the reality of Karnali actually is.
The play shone through with its incorporation of audio-visual elements, and more notably the cultural music, dances and the powerful narration at the beginning and the end of the play as well.
Actors Kabiraj Bham as the Mukhya Mantri (Chief Minister) of Karnali, Rajesh Prasad Khatri as Unjineer (Engineer), and Ashish Kumar Malla as Mr. Jack and the chief minister’s son, were all brilliant in their performances, amongst the hardworking crew of some 30 performers.
As director Pokharel said at the staging of the play, “The play is about dreams, because they are very important. Please dream. Nepal really needs it.”
He should know, as the dreamer director and Gurukul founder had this crazy dream of holding an international theatre festival in Nepal when Nepali theatre itself was and is still in an uncertain state. But the dream came true for the third time and was received beautifully by the growing audience and theatre lovers.
“Suina Karnalika” will be restaged at Gurukul starting December 18 and will continue for a month.
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