Street plays capture society’s diversity

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 23

Equality for transgenders, care and proper treatment of the mentally disabled, unemployment, atrocities on women, the challenges of being a girl growing up in India —- such were the themes that young students of various colleges of the city brought forward in ‘Straight Outta Street’, the nukkad section of the city’s most active and popular theatre group — Yuvaa’s National Theatre Festival, Yuvaa Rang Utsav 4, that saw as many as 10 different street plays performed at three different venues in the city over three days. Thousands of young boys and girls of the city witnessed and applauded these performances.

Bawre Group from the National Institute of Technology broke the ice over the less talked and enacted topic of the biased treatment that society metes out to transgenders in general while the Kalakaar Group enacted an emotionally charged performance on the ill-treatment of mentally different young men and women.

Unemployment and the resultant spurt in crime, drug addiction and other ills were brought out by the team from the DAV University. Festival coordinators, Shaina Batta and Chahat of Yuvaa Theatre, said the team wished to connect to the youth of the city with theatre and also to expand the purview of their annual theatre festival.

YRU 4 starts its second section, which comprises nine stage plays, from October 1 at KL Saigal Memorial Hall, Jalandhar, every weekend at 6.15 pm. The first performance is “Shrimaan Chor” by Funtoosh Players, Mumbai. The group also opened its National Theatre Festival this year with a new venture — Straight Outta Street — through which they have involved a large number of students, studying in different colleges of the region, with theatre.

As many as 10 street plays are being performed by nine different institutions at three different colleges, marked as venues for the festival by Yuvaa. The sub-festival, that entered its second day today, is witnessing an upsurge of talent and a shocking awareness among the youth as they bring forth themes like care for the mentally disabled, atrocities against women, environmental pollution and Swachch Bharat.

Yuvaa is also hosting the Yuvaa Rang Utsav as National Theatre Festival this year. Yuvaa Rang Utsav, the group’s annual theatre festival, started in 2013, with just two plays performed by the group, and grew to a three-play festival the following year. In 2016, it entertained the city audience with as many as 10 plays from the Yuvaa’s own repertoire.

The plays to be held during the festival are: October 1: Shriman Chor by Funtoosh Players, Mumbai; October 7: Vijay Tendulkar’s Sakharam Binder by Prachyo, Kolkata; October 8: Piyush Mishra’s Jab Shehar Hamara Sota Hai by Yuvaa; October 14: Pati Gaye Re Kathiyawar by Sparsh Natya, Delhi; October 15: Court Martial by Yuvaa; October 21: Mirch Masala by Punjab Naatshala, Amritsar; October 22; Muzeum by Yuvaa; October 28: Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night by Natrang Jammu.