Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 6: William Shakespeare’s presentation of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ enthralled audiences at Abhinav Theatre here this evening.
A brilliant presentation by Natrang Jammu was directed by Aarushi Thakur. This was the third show of the current series of this play. Priya Sethi, Minister of State for Education, Tourism and Culture was the chief guest and Nazir Ahmed Gurezi, Deputy Speaker J&K Assembly presided as special guest. The second show was staged today in the morning.
Welcoming the gathering, Natrang Director, Balwant Thakur informed that it has been the endeavour of Natrang to expose Jammuites, to the best of the world literature and artistic creations. Giving details about Aarushi’s passion for Shakespeare’s works, he informed that she went to study Shakespeare’s theatre in Stratford Upon Avon (UK) where Shakespeare was born.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is William Shakespeare’s most popular comedy, set in an enchanted forest with fairies, sparring lovers and a group of comical actors who are putting on a play. It is a story of order and disorder, reality and appearance and love and marriage. The play consists of three interconnecting plots, in the first plot Egeus, a military advisor wants his rebellious daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius but Hermia refuses, because she’s in love with Lysander. He orders Hermia to obey her father or, according to regional law, she must face a death penalty.
Hermia and Lysander decide to elope that night. They confide to their friend Helena who is secretly in love with Demetrius so, hoping to win his affection, she tells him of Hermia’s plan. That night, all four lovers set out into the forest. Meanwhile, a group of armature actors led by Peter Quince and Bottom are planning to perform a play on the celebration of Hermia’s wedding. In the third plot, Titania and Oberon, the king and queen of the forest are having a quarrel over a precious jewel. To take revenge on Titania, Oberon puts a magical spell on her which would make her fall in love with the first thing she sees as soon as she wakes. She wakes up and falls in love with Bottom, the actor who is rehearsing in the forest. The same spell is wrongfully used by Puck, the assistant of Oberon on the four lovers in the forest. This all leads to a comical twist in the story where the two lovers fall in love with the wrong girl Helena.
Aarushi Thakur described ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ as a story of a magical dream which involves love, comedy and magic. As per her version at emotional level, the play is a great drama of human emotions and relationships. Artists who participated in play included Rajan Thakyal, Bhanu Pratap Singh, Nitish Koul, Goutam Sharma, Aarushi Thakur, Gauri Thakur, Sonalika Jamwal, Masood Qadir Malik, Sanyam Pandoh, Aman Kapoor, Gautam Kumar, Nikhil Dubey,Shray Bakshi, Mohit Kaul, Gopi Sharma, Akshit Koul, Bhisham Gupta, Shaan Khan, Sanket Bhagat, Agam Kaur, Sanya Gupta, Manya, and Sumedha Manhas.
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