Powerful and evocative

The fest began with a play titled Life at a Theatre Festival by Yours Truly, a theatre group. It was simple yet powerful, interspersed with creativity and humour that had the audience in splits. Next, the play titled, John Doesn’t Know gave the audience an interesting perspective on the issue of love.

Day two began with the performance Mareech, the legend by IIT Kharagpur. It was a mix of comedy and tragedy. The play moved between three different stories in perfect rhythm, as if they were all connected by a common thread. This was followed by the play by Lady Sri Ram College, titled Veronica’s Room. The story revolved around Susan, who agrees to step into the shoes of a dead girl named Veronica, only to see herself playing a part in her eerie and macabre story.

The workshops conducted by Evam gave the students an insight into the nuances of theatre in a creative, fun way. The last day saw the play, A Family Portrait by the National Law School. The students dubbed the fest as nothing less than ‘enriching’. Radhika Agarwal, a fourth year student of NLS said that in addition to witnessing some amazing talent, “The theatre workshop by Evam was a great addition that added to the credibility of the fest. Meeting Arundhati Nag and listening to her was a great inspiration.” Shwetha Chandrashekar, convener of the cultural committee of NLSIU, said, “We look forward to bigger, brighter participation in the coming year. We’ve worked very hard and are happy that our efforts have paid off.” 

The award for the winning play went to Lady Sri Ram College, who also won the award for Best Production. Rohit Chotai from IIT Kharagpur and Yash Bharadwaj from Zealous Productions won for Best Actor awards. Meher Sra from Hindu College and Varshini from Christ University won for Best Actress awards. Best Script award went to Christ University.