The Hindu : New Delhi News : Bringing dark deeds to light

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Friday, Sep 08, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Bringing dark deeds to light

HARD-HITTING: Chittaranjan Tripathy's play

National Theatre Workers' Alliance (NATWA) -- a theatre company that made a mark on the theatre scene last year through its maiden production "Othello" -- now brings to the Capital a Hindi adaptation of Peter Shaffer's well-known play "Black Magic". A farcical comedy, "Raat Baaki" will be staged at Shriram Centre here on September 9 and 10.

The play is directed by Chittaranjan Tripathy, whose comic-satire "Taj Mahal Ka Tender'' by the National School of Drama repertory is hugely popular. Tripathy's contemporary Hindi adaptation of this social farce revolves round a three-tenant house in a lower middle class colony of Delhi during an electrical blackout.

Rajan Jha, an artist, and his fiancée Kavita Chadha have stolen fancy furniture and artefacts from neighbour Harish Sharma's flat. They have done this solely to impress Kavita's father Colonel Chadha as Rajan is afraid that the Colonel will not give his daughter's hand in marriage to a starving artist. Things go awry when the lights suddenly go off, leaving Rajan helpless as other characters start arriving one by one. The first to come is Rajan's elderly neighbour Aarti followed by his would-be father-in-law, Colonel Chadha, who also gets upset by the blackout. Rajan's worst nightmare comes true as Harish, whose furniture and artefacts he has stolen, returns early from his vacation. Although Rajan tries desperately to return the furniture in the darkness without Harish noticing, the plot gets complicated as more guests arrive.

The principal unifying element of the entire play will be its focus on "lies and deception" by seemingly innocent neighbourly characters. The physical "darkness'' helps to keep secrets, hiding both the identity and the actions of the players from one another but the "moral darkness'' of all the characters lies bare in bright lights for the audience.

A multi-talented theatre and media personality, Chittaranjan Tripathy did his Masters in Sociology and then a three-year diploma in acting from the National School of Drama. Thereafter he was associated with the NSD Repertory Company. Created by some eminent theatre persons and a highly dedicated set of people from the corporate world under the presidentship of Prof. Mohan Maharishi, NATWA's primary objective is to professionalise the theatre scene in the Capital and generate employment opportunities for trained actors and other theatre professionals. -- Madhur Tankha

-- Madhur Tankha

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