A famous play by John Galsworthy ‘Silver Box’ was staged at Shaheed Bhavan auditorium here on Wednesday. The play was performed to mark the conclusion of Show oriented Theatre Workshop.
The play was translated by Munshi Premchand. It was directed by Dinesh Nair and was performed by the artists of Rang Madhyam Theatre Troupe.
The Silver Box is a powerful and bitter play. In this play Galsworthy wants to show that justice has quite different meaning for the poor and the rich.
The story is about Jack Barthwick and Jones. One evening Jack got terribly drunk and returned home late at night. He was trying to find the keyhole on the wrong side of the door. Jones also returned home late at night from a wine shop. He helped Jack to open the door. Jack invited him to have a drink. Both of them have a lot of wine. Meanwhile Jack went to sleep and Jones went on drinking and smoking.
Jones was not in condition to distinguish between the right and wrong. While returning home, he took the silver cigarette-box as well as the purse with money.
In the morning a servant reported to Mr. Barthwick about the theft of the silver box and later on informed the police. A police officer went to the house of Jones to trace out the theft. Jones quarreled with the police official and he was arrested for stopping the police in the discharge of his official duty. Mr. Jones was also arrested. The police recovered the stolen goods from Jones’ house. Jones and Mrs. Jones were accused of theft.
During the course of trial, it was found that Jones was out of job. Mrs. Jones was dismissed from service. The house in which they lived with their children was taken from them.
When the case was in progress, Mr. Barthwick asked his solicitor, Roper to tell the magistrate that he did not want to pursue the case of theft. Jones was imprisoned for a month.