A theatre festival in the memory of a noted theatre artiste Habib Tanvir ’12 National Rang Alap Theatre Festival’ began here from Tuesday. On the first day of the theatre festival a play Makbare Ka Rakhwala was staged at Shaheed Bhawan. Directed by Balendra Singh, the play is an adaptation of a French story by a renowned French author Franz Kafta with the name ‘The Warden of the Tomb’.
The festival is being organised by Hum Theatre Group, Bhopal and the performance was also given by the artists of the troupe. The play is a bizarre tale about a prince, a Chamberlin and a park warden. A play about the fundamental disharmony between the individual’s search for meaning and the apparent meaninglessness of the universe, the absurdity of life and satirical situations, questioning the society is Makbare Ka Rakhwala.
The play follows the story of a Greek Prince who wants a warden for the tomb of his ancestors. It is a conversation between the prince and the Chamberlin who narrates the story of an honest warden who worked for years and guarded the tombs of his ancestors. But, the prince wants to change the warden and wanted the Chamberlin to appoint a new one. The story then travels to the flashback, where the artists stage the characters of spirits of the ancestors of the prince and the honest warden.
The warden was known for his honesty and his struggles and hardships he faced during the working tenure. He guarded the spirits and never let them move out of their graves. The conversation and the flashback scenes formed rest of the story. The audiences enjoyed the show with a lot of ecstasy. Due to power cut in the city, the show started a bit late as per the scheduled time, but as the show began it left the audiences go thrilled. The spectators had goosebumps as the play took the pace at the climax.
While talking to The Pioneer, director of the play Balendra Singh said, “This is the first show of the play in the city in fact this is the first story of Franz Kafta to be staged in Madhya Pradesh.” During the inaugural ceremony Director of Madhya Pradesh School of Drama (MPSD) Sanjay Upadhyay and other theatre artists of the city were present to watch the show.