A graceful Frida Kahlo painting welcomes visitors to Ishan Pariyar’s solo show at GG Machan in Pulchok. Wearing a traditional Nepali garb, Kahlo sits on a boat, hands on her lap, looking on, beside a lotus flower sprouting out of the boat itself, solemn and pensive—for someone not familiar with this Mexican folk artist, she may come across as just another attractive woman from the western hills.

When the Gurukul Theatre was dissolved in 2012, many thought it sounded the death knell for private theatres in the Valley. Led by playwright Sunil Pokharel, Gurukul had become an institution, producing plays, training actors and helping popularise Nepali theatre. There were fears among the public that with the closing down of Gurukul, the nascent theatre scene in Kathmandu might collapse. These fears turned out to be unfounded. Since then, the theatre scene in Kathmandu has boomed, with Sarwanam, Mandala, Shilpee, and new entrants Kunja and Kausi churning out quality plays on a regular basis.

When the Gurukul Theatre was dissolved in 2012, many thought it sounded the death knell for private theatres in the Valley.

It’s no news that Kathmandu’s theatregoers have a penchant for slapstick humour. Give them some and they will embrace it with hearty laughs even if the execution is sometimes half-baked. This has led to, as some critics have pointed out, directors often forcibly inserting humour where it is not warranted, breaking up a play’s rhythm and taking it off into tangents.

Two Nepali plays, Upiya ko Nibandha and Mr Fox and Schoolboy, were staged at the maiden Kolkata International Children’s Theatre Festival, currently held at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata, India.

It’s an overcast evening and Bipin Karki is at a studio in Anamnagar that he has been frequenting to finalise the sound mixing for Hari, his latest film. With a disarming personality and an infectious smile, it is at times hard to believe that in three short years since his breakthrough with Pashupati Prasad, Karki has become one of the most bankable stars in the Nepali film industry. But even Karki—who exudes no aura you’d associate with filmstars—is aware that he is not the typecast of what a ‘hero’ in a film should look, or behave, like.