It’s a norm at Shilpee Theatre to organise a staging at the end of each quarterly acting classes. As part of which, the Battisputali-based theatre house is staging a play titled Nirdosh Ma, starting on Thursday. The play features students from the seventh batch of Shilpee’s theatre workshop. 

Nirdosh Ma presents a collage of five separate short stories, all pieced together with the single theme of innocence or the loss of innocence on part of its protagonists, according to the play’s director Loonibha Tuladhar. 

The play brings on stage few contemporary issues that have made news of late. For example, the first act of the play dramatises the shortage, and illicit withholding, of Indian currency in the market. While the third act of the play tells the story of Dolma Sherpa, who was subjected to a ten-year long jail term in the Middle East country of Kuwait. The play also features an episode based on a real-life event about a 70-year old Roshan Bogati, who raped his own teenage granddaughter; the story is told through the perspective of Bogati. 

Other episodes of the play include a portrayal of a school of fishes narrating their stories; and finally, a story told through the perspective of a topi.  The one hour and ten minutes long play features live music by the duo of Kishan Shrestha and Nabin Nepal from the folk ensemble Baaja. 

Nirdosh Ma features actors Nisha Pakhrin, Samrat Bhujel, Rohit Khatri, Carolyn Chand, Prabhas Dhakal, Shreeshesh Shrestha, Menuka Rai, Manang Lawoti, and Banshari Pandey. 

Nirdosh Ma will be staged every day (except for Tuesday) at 5:30 pm, through August 24; there will be an extra show on Saturday at 1:30 pm.