The show commenced on May 18 and it presented its last show on May 28. The bandas did not hinder the plays’ presentations in any way, with the shows going on for appreciative audiences.[break]
Comprising two different plays, Katha Wachan starts out with “Prabash” where Sudam Chatkuli enthralled the audience with his performance.
The play is a story of a small-time journalist and his wife and fellow journalist who own a newspaper called Prabash, named after their son.
As Sudam takes the audience through his despairs of making ends meet while trying to run the newspaper, we see how a person’s hopes can easily be shattered.
From his happiness and new hopes at learning about a new client, he turns to dark despair at the end. The actor does a beautiful job, taking the play to new heights on his lone shoulders.
The next play “Naya Sadakko Geet” shows us the poignant story of Sani and her blind husband who sit everyday at Naya Sadak to beg for alms.
Sani, played by Pashupati Rai, is a loving wife, and Jiwan Baral does an excellent job of portraying the husband who burns at the lecherous smiles and moves that Sani has to bear from traffic policemen, one of them enacted by Chandra Pandey. Naya Sadakko Geet is a moving story with justice done to it by the excellent actors.
With the tickets priced very reasonably at Rs 100 each, with 50% discounts for students, Katha Wachan received a fair share of interested audience.
Before the start of the show, Ghimire Yubraj, art director of Shilpee Theatre, mentioned that this was the 20th presentation of Katha Wachan, with 10 shows already being performed outside Kathmandu.
When asked why the show had two different plays, he said, “There is no related theme in the plays. We just wanted to show two different plays in this show to give different tastes to our audience.”
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