Based on real incident that happened in Kashmir during 1990 a play was presented titled ‘Song of the Swans’.
It marked the fourth day on Tuesday of National Theatre Festival being organised at Antarang Hall, Bharat Bhavan.
Directed by Shubhrajyoti Barat, scripted by Asad Hussain the play was wonderfully presented by artists including Suneel Sinha, Saurabh Nayyar, Harsh mishra, Kanak Khanna and Avantika Akerkar of knot Theatre group.
The story of play revolves around the Kidnapping and beheading of Hans Christian Ostro, a Norwegian Theatre practitioner who became the symbol of the rising turmoil in Kashmir in the 1990’s. On a visit to India to study Kathakkali and other forms of Indian Theatre, Hans visits Kashmir to go trekking before wanting to return to Oslo. He has spent several months in India, staying in Kerala, Mumbai, Delhi and finally Zargibal (Kashmir). While Zargibal, he is kidnapped by Mujahedeen and after a long bitter negotiation between the Indian Government and his captors, Hans is eventually beheaded. Along with Hans, three were other Europeans whose bodies were never found.
However, given the highly politically charged situation Indian and Pakistan found themselves embroiled in during 90s, the hostages ended up being mere pawns on the larger geo-political chess-board.
The dramatised piece was narrated by five people whose lives were touched by Hans, including his mother. From Kerela to Kashmir, the audience is taken on Hans’s journey until his eventual kidnapping and beheading in Kashmir. It is his mother that recounts this story through her memories.
“We have staged various shows of the play but for the first time it is being staged in Bharat Bhavan. It’s collage-like reconstruction of Hans Ostro's journey in India till his fateful, tragic end in the Kashmir valley, summons the extraordinariness of one young man in a show that is deep with feeling," said director Barat.