One of Nepal’s theatre pioneers, Sunil Pokharel, is all set to present his next directional work, a Nepali adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare at Shilpee Theatre, Battisputali.

Playfully titled A Midsummer Night’s ‘Sapana’ the play will be staged for a month starting from March 17.  The presentation is a collaboration between Pokharel’s Gyan: Theater Group-Discover Yourself with Sunil Pokharel (DYS) and Shilpee Theatre.  

This is the second play Pokharel is staging with his students after the rave reviews he received for Jar, a play based on Indra Bahadur Rai’s story. Pokharel runs Gyan: DYA, a three months intensive acting classes in Anamnagar at the end of which he puts up a play with the students. 

“I am optimistic about this project,” says Pokharel, a theatre veteran who established the now-defunct Aarohan Gurukul in 2000, the country’s first drama school.

Pokharel had made his theatrical comeback in 2014 with his directional work, Roshoman—an interpretation of the famous movie by the Japanese writer Akira Kurosawa at Mandala Theatre. Last year, Pokharel also played a role of teacher in a play, Kohi Kina Barbad Hos, directed by Shankar Rijal, an upcoming theatre director.

For his latest production, Pokharel has chosen  the Shakespearean classic A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the evergreen comedy retold through a Nepali perspective.

The play will also feature a live background score by Baaja Group, and Pradip Lama as choreographer. 

Yubraj Ghimire, the artistic director of Shilpee Theatre expressed his excitement about the new production, “He is my guru and it’s a great opportunity and an honour for us to stage his play,” he says. Speaking on the collective process that is going into bringing this play to audiences he added, “There is a live music, dance and some aerobic steps and can see the reflection of the whole Nepali culture in the acts. The new actors are amazing as well”. 

Novice actors featured in the play are: Safar Pokharel ,Suraj Chaulagain, Avash Adhikari, Suuneesa Bajagain, Sangit Sapkota, Priya Pandey, and  Anil Subba  among others.