Acheekpagi Khongjel - A Manipuri Play By L Kishworjit

The Abhinaya National Theatre Monthly magazine is organising the 2nd Abhinaya National Theatre Festival 2007 from 9th to 12th August, at the Ravindra Bharathi. Six stage plays and four street plays from all over the country will be staged during the 4-day festival.

A Telugu play Ye Velugulaki Prasthanam on 9th August; a Telugu street play Tadabu Lakadana Jibu Jibu and a Hindi/English play Numbers In The Dark on 10th August; an English play The Island, a Telugu street play Dakshinayanam and a Kannada play Caucasian Chalk Circle on 11th August; and a Tamil play Pavan Kunju, a Tamil street play Payanam and a Manipuri play Acheekpagi Khongjel on 12th August, will be staged.

Today, the last day, Paradise Theatre from Imphal will be staging Acheekpagi Khongjel, directed by L Kishworjit Singh. The play is adapted from David Henry Hwang's Sound Of Voice, and attempts to explore some of the deepest, and sometimes contradictory, human emotions.

To do so, two very lonely middle-aged characters are created and placed in an isolated house, almost as if to watch them interact as they simultaneously long for, and repel, the magnetic powers of love. Both the female and male characters are desperately lonely, but their fear of being psychologically marred by the other keeps them from a final surrender to their emotional needs.

The play is deeply moving with a surprising, or, more appropriately, shocking ending. In the play, the characters must confront their fears of growing old, of never finding love, and of never being comforted by the intimacy of a long and trusted relationship, all in the short but intense space of one act.

Abhinaya National Theatre Monthly was founded in the 2004 by Gadde Srinivas, a theater artiste and a die-hard lover of theater. Srinivas holds a diploma in theater arts. Quitting his lucrative profession in Telugu movies, he started Abhinaya, a first-of-its-kind magazine in India dedicated exclusively to theater. He organises many events throughout the year, like the State Theatre Festival in Guntur, and Padya Nataka Festival and Nataka Rachana Poteelu in Hyderabad.

Please contact G Srinivas at 93911-11622 for further details.