Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, Mar, 31
On the concluding day of the ongoing 10th Natrang Theatre Festival in connection with the celebrations of Natrang’s 35 glorious years, Natrang presented World Classic ‘Riders To The Sea’, in Hindi today at its Studio Theatre. The play has been written John Millington Synge and was directed by Neeraj Kant. The engrossing performance proved to be a befitting presentation as the finale of the Theatre Festival. Natrang has been organising a Theatre Festival of four plays every month since last eleven months in commemoration with the celebrations of 35 eventful years of Natrang. The play ‘Riders To The Sea’ was set on an island off the coast of Ireland, begins with Nora bringing in a small bundle with her and telling Cathleen that these may be the clothes of their brother Michael. The young priest told her a body of a drowned man was found at Donegal, and the body might be Michael’s. The sisters are scared to open the bundle of clothes because they do not want their mother, Maurya, to know: Michael has been missing for a week and the family had already lost five men to the sea. Maurya is prepared for the funeral for Michael, with whiteboards for his coffin ready at the cottage. Maurya, Nora, and Cathleen discuss the last son, Bartley, who is also planning to go the sea to sell the family horses so they could get some money. Nora and Cathleen are convinced that Bartley should go to the fair at Galway to sell the animals, Maurya tries to stop him but paying no heed, Bartley changes his clothes, asks his sisters to take care of the sheep, and leaves without receiving any blessings from his mother. Maurya’s laments are interrupted when islanders bring the body of Bartley into the cottage and tell the women that the grey pony knocked Bartley into the sea, where he drowned. Maurya gets on her knees near Bartley’s body and sprinkles holy water on him. She finally resigns herself to her fate as she claims that she will finally sleep at night because she no longer has anyone to worry about: all the men of her family have died to the sea.
The whiteboards that were supposed to be used for Michael’s coffin will now be used to bury Bartley. Maurya prays that the souls of her husband, her husband’s father, and four sons may rest in peace.
The soulful acting of Meenakshi Bhagat and Vrinda Sharma elevated the overall impact of the performance, they were equally supported by Manoj Lalotra, Arti Devi, Vanshika Gupta, Kananpreet Kaur, Ajay Lalotra and Sumit Raina. The Lights were operated by Neeraj Kant while Sushant Singh Charak scored the Music. The show was coordinated by Mohd. Yaseen.
