New theatre festival to feature classic, contemporary plays

Classics like "Ashadh Ka Ek Din" and "Sweet Suite", a Hindi adaptation of popular English play "Out of Order" will be among the five plays that will be staged at a new theatre festival here.

The three-day 'Dream On Theatre' festival that begins on Friday, will be held at the LTG Auditorium here.

"Dreams don't have an expiry date, which means we can try any number of times we want. With this thought we got together to celebrate diversity, drama and dreams at the Dream On Theatre Festival," festival curator Nikunj Wadhawan said.

The plays will range from "comedy to serious drama and everything in between".

A contemporary production "Sonam Gupta Bewafa Hai", named after a phrase that became viral after demonetisation in the country, revolves around the social issue of "women defamation".

"The silly statement becoming a phenomenon in the country at that time, to a point that it became a slang to mock women.

"The theme of the play revolves around exploring how this statement came to be. Using metaphorical devices, the play portrays different stages of a man-woman relationship in a nutshell," Wadhawan explained.

Plays like "Wo Afsaana" that retells the tale of legendary lyricist and poet Sahir Ludhianvi's unrequited love for Amrita Pritam, and "Tranzistor Untuned", a 2016 farce comedy play set in a mental asylum in 1972 Lahore will also be part of the festival.

The festival will come to a close on April 7.