Road safety, suicide among youth, women empowerment and ill treatment of elders were some of the major themes in the Street Theater Festival – Tamasha, organised on the occasion of World Theatre Day on Wednesday.
The show opened with the play ‘Horn Dhire Baja Re Pagle’ a twenty minutes play on road safety. The play showed two simpleton visiting Ranchi city for the first time to be surrounded by zooming vehicles which do not follow traffic rules. The act moves on to show how the rash driving led to three persons losing their lives.
The second play, ‘Roll No. 73’, based on suicidal cases in youth, seemed to be an eye opener for the youngsters as well as the adults who watched the play. The act gave a loud message to the youth that being called a backbencher or not excelling in studies is not the end of the world, and at the same time highlighted the ill effects of bullying and comparison among students. The play had a special mention about an IPS officer of the State, Sanjay Ranjan Singh, who currently serves as SP at Jharkhand Armed Police, showing how despite being an average student in the school, he managed to excel in life.
The other plays showcased included ‘Yamraj on Duty’ on road safety, ‘Kabaad on ill-treatment of elders’, Khamoshi Kab Tak on women empowerment and ‘Researcher Gang’ on Clean India Mission.
The plays were enacted by Jharkhand Film and Theater Academy (JFTA) and Rise Up, a social organisation at the amphitheatre in Oxygen Park.
Creative director of JFTA Rajeev Sinha said, “This is our initiative to attract more people towards theaters. Nowadays people pay hundreds of rupees to watch movies but do not want to watch this wonderful form of acting. With this play we are hoping that more people would appreciate this art.”
Sinha said that this being just the beginning, his team would organise a play at the amphitheatre every Sunday morning.
“With most of the theatres and auditoriums charging excessive fees, this amphitheatre has proven to be a wonderful platform for the theater artists as it provides us a platform to perform without any fees,” Sinha said.
Meanwhile, Rishabh Anand of Rise Up said that by enacting social causes through theatre, they plan to make people think about such issues and take action at an individual level.
Nisha Singh, an onlooker said, “I sat through all the plays. All where wonderfully enacted and made me think about the various issues. I hope such initiatives become regular here.”