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Exploring the many faces and facets of truth, an original play, written by Bahrain-based playwright and director Anupam Ramesh Kinger is set to take the stage later this month.
The Hindi-language play Yatharth, which translates to ‘fact’ in Hindi and Sanskrit according to the playwright, will be performed on November 24 at the Cultural Hall. Yatharth is also the name of the central character within the drama.
“Set in the 1950s, in a beautiful picturesque village of India, this play deals with the many shades of truth, as seen through the life of Yatharth, the main protagonist,” Anupam told GulfWeekly.
“Yatharth has grown up believing his mother to be the victim of many atrocities along with other women. However as the story unfolds, he realises that his mother is now inflicting pain upon others and in such a way that he finds it extremely hard to relate to her.”
She added that the five-act play, performed on a single set, is approximately 80 minutes long and revolves around how time changes people and victims of trauma can become perpetrators and vice versa. It is being produced by Anupam’s theatre company Khwabgaah.
Saptarshi Bhowmick plays the title character, while Deepshikha Banerjee plays Sugandha, Anagha Pakhi plays Rani Sahiba, Kartikeya Mehta plays Raja Sahib and Sudeep Deshpande is Vaid Mangalramji.
“Supported by live music and an art exhibition, we take you through a journey of introspection, as the drama gradually unfolds and Yatharth discovers there are the good elements that are not that good and bad elements who had their own reasons,” Anupam added.
Nisha Ranga will be performing the instrumentals while Meghna Mathur will be lending her voice to the music accompanying the performance.
Ten Indian artists have also created pieces around ‘the real truth’ – the play’s tag line – that will be exhibited on the sidelines of the performance.
The artists, including Sudeep, Niji George, Pallavi Jain, Anju Kapoor, Madhab Dutta, Richa Singh, Sneha Raj, Sudeb Banerjee, Bhupendra Pathak, Srirupa Roy and Bhavika Bhatia, were given a narration of the story, after which they painted their perception of the underlying themes.
“These paintings will be displayed in the foyer of the Cultural Hall so that, when the audience leave the auditorium, these paintings give them an even deeper experience of the story,” Anupam explained.
“Some characters may seem dark to you but not to me and some characters may seem dark to me but definitely understandable to you. I think that is the beauty of this collaboration between theatre and art.”
Yatharth is the fourth performance put on by Khwabgaah, since it was founded in 2019.
Tickets to Yatharth went on sale earlier this week.
For details, follow @khwab_gaah on Instagram.
