Engrossing herself into the impalpable realm of the mind of the character she is portraying, an actor renders the life of the character palpable to those who watch. But what about her own life? How free is she? Or how chained? And, what about the life beside the life on stage? 

In Awantar, a play currently being staged at Sushkera Theatre in Theatre Mall, right at the beginning the director gets arrested. “We are from the CID, please cooperate with us,” says the inspector. Henceforth, the play Awantar starts and takes us on a ride to a deeply melancholic dreamscape from where we get to take a peek into the life of a young artist. 

Written and directed by Ram KAC, Awantar is a story of struggle and an ultimate triumph, of sorts, the protagonist Dhruba (played by Jitendra Khadka ‘Siman’) goes through. Dhruba is a young man and has a penchant for acting. But it is not easy for young Dhruba to continue doing what he loves doing the most—apart from finances, there is pressure from the family. But he doesn’t give up; and one day he makes it big, after suffering more than his share of misery. Yet he faces backlashes, primarily from his own guru. And at last, he gets detained by the police, an inscrutable conspiracy is suggested.

The play involves two separate narratives. It reimagines a significant historical cornerstone—the death of Bhimsen Thapa, a powerful example of good vs evil, which serves as a metaphor to the main theme in the play: how an honest man suffers in a world beset by politics and materialism. That’s the first element.

Second, it evokes the ordeals, economical or physical, one young artist has to go through while doing his art. The young artist Dhruba, though without any returns, continues on his pursuit. But at last, in a scene that suggests a commonplace rivalry between the good and the bad, Dhruba is seen being detained by the police, without him committing anything remotely close to crime. We are introduced to a new character here, the inspector Sanjeev (played by Khadka ‘Siman’ himself), who carries out the task to detain Dhruba. As the inspector browses through Dhruba’s old personal diaries, he reflects upon himself and relates himself to the ordeal Dhruba goes through: Sanjeev finds himself suffering the same fate as Dhruba, bruised and burnt in the materialistic bubble the world is—in a telling moment when the fates of the characters intersect.The play is itself a reflection of the current picture of theatre in Nepal, and the portrayal of the strifes the theatre artists have to endure. 

Despite having such a stellar plot, the play hardly lives up to the promise its source boasts. The two personas—Dhruba and Sanjeev—have not been developed fully, which invites confusion to the narrative. Meanwhile, there are moments, such as the one during the inspector’s final monologue— where the timing is jumbled, which renders such a seminal moment to seem forcefully contrived. However, the play is a watchable fair, not least because it raises such an important issue: the story of the ones who created the play. And it’s good to take a peek at what goes through the head of someone who cheers us up by living the lives of many. Isn’t it?

The play is currently on at Theatre Mall, in Kathmandu Mall, and will run through June 11 every day (except for Wednesdays) at 5: 30 pm