With a medley of fairytales with local flavors and laughter and fun, the play “K Garne!” is jointly directed by Dagmar Elgart and Ghimire Yubaraj.[break]
Staged for only two days on June 28 and 29 at Nepal Tourism Board, the first day of the play saw the audience enjoying the play thoroughly.
Before the beginning of all the “confusion,” Dagmar explained how the story is essentially a Czech fairytale called “The Twelve Months” but what the audiences will see is the result of a lot of changes and adaptations.
The actors worked together for 15 days to elaborate the story. Of the seven actors, Kamal Mani Nepal, Saraswati Tharu, Pashupati Rai, Lokendra Lekhak, and Ghimire Yubaraj are members of Shilpee Theatre while Silvana Castelberg and Dagmar Elgart are from Switzerland.
Accompanying the actors on the stage with live music were Barta Gandharva, Bishnu Banjara, and Binod Gandharva.
Mixed liberally with a good dose of Nepali, English and Swiss German, the play managed to incite laughter on more than a few occasions.
The play sets its story in a village in Solukhumbu, high in the mountains where a greedy lodge owner lives with her stepdaughter. Solukhumbu being a tourist destination, the lodge operator sees two Swiss tourists whose demands, combined with the lodge owner’s greed, makes the overworked stepdaughter venture out in the cold to forage strawberries and find adventure.
As to which actors play which roles is a difficult task as the actors end up exchanging parts. The play ends in confusion. And laughter, too. What we can take away from the play is not sublime messages but an hour of laughter and fun as well.
As Ghimire Yubaraj said, “To be honest, I was apprehensive, thinking of the reaction that would come from the audience. I had no idea that we would generate that kind of laughter. Well, after the play was over, it felt very satisfying.”
He added that Shilpee would continue with the play, replacing the two Swiss actors who are flying back home on July 1.
The play will next be staged in the Sarbanam Theatre for 15 days. However, no exact date has been set yet.
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