The National Drama Festival-2013 concluded with Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry’s tragedy play — ‘The last Tale’, staged at Antrang Hall, Bharat Bhavan here on Wednesday.
Adapted from Shakespearean tragedy Othello, the play is directed by noted theatre artiste Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry. Outstanding performance by the artistes of The Company theatre group marked the marvellous conclusion of the drama fest.
This is a drama that has emerged out of the desire to have conversations with lost stories, songs from the past, dynamics of love, and feelings of loss and forgiveness. The last Tale, Neelam Man Singh Chowdhry’s play, does not come from a script or text, and that’s why the director says it’s been a challenging journey.
The last Tale is a production that has been with her for some time, and came together during workshops and improvisations set around Punjabi love stories, traditional songs of mourning, loss and forgiveness, and Shakespearean tragedies. The narrative has been done by poet and author Surjit Pattar, who has brought together many seen and unseen layers.
The play revolves around a woman named Bihaag, who has been murdered by her husband Udav three days after their marriage. After death, they re-emerge and speak as the dead, of things that they could not when alive. In this space between memory and mourning, they begin to find their voices and tell their stories. Bihaag, born into a privileged family, is trained in the customs that sustain her social class. Udav, the orphaned son of a blacksmith, on the other hand, grows up as a master of storytelling and subterfuge. The last Tale opens with the suicide of Udav, right after he kills his wife.
The performance and presentation of the play left the audiences enthralled. The sensible use of lights, music and other theatre strategies added more zeal in the play.