Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 17: Samooh Theatre’s presentation of solo play, Agni Priksha (Honour Killing), which marked the third day of ongoing Jammu Natya Utsav at K L Saigal Hall, here today, emerged as a scathing attack on gender discrimination prevailing in our society.
Directed by Ravinder Sharma and written by twenty two years old playwright Shivani Anand, today’s solo play saw young actor Preeti Sharma give an account of age-old bias against the female gender that even forced the mythological character like Sita and Amba to resort to Agni Priksha in order to prove their purity and fidelity.
Questioning as to why it is the female only who is subjected to so called moral and social codes while the male is bound by no such restraints, the plot of the play connects up with contemporary situations where under the garb of family honour, girls are being burnt by their own parents and family members. The play ends up with a critique of so-called idea of ‘beauty’ that further traumatizes the lives of many ordinary and abnormal girls in the society.
Jammu Natya Utsav will go into the annals of theatre in the winter capital for not only providing platform to young actors to show their talent but also presenting opportunity to perform scripts reflecting contemporary social issues.
The greenhorn Preeti Sharma was able to carry the performance with confidence. But her lack in speech variation rendered a kind of flatness to the dialogues, especially the sequences that marked a transition of historical time.
Barring the jarring bang on the big drum to mark the change of scenes, the overall design, with help of well thought out light design, transcended the limitations of the performance space and did succeed in putting forth the message of the play to audience. The chief guest of the function was Subhash Anand,the well known visual artist.Tomorrow on fourth day of ongoing Jammu Natya Utsav, Ek Sath Rang Mahal will present Hindi play Baalak at 6 p.m.
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