Chandigarh theatre group spreading awareness about social evils - Amended

Theatre groups in Chandigarh are using the medium to spread awareness about evils like dowry, illiteracy and HIV/ AIDS. They seek to promote theatre as a medium of social change.

By Ashwini Kaushal

Chandigarh, Sept 29 : Theatre groups in Chandigarh are using the medium to spread awareness about evils like dowry, illiteracy and HIV/ AIDS. They seek to promote theatre as a medium of social change.

The theatre group has been raising issues concerning the society for the last three decades. The latest issue they are focusing through "Theatre Lab" is the evils of dowry.

"My plays are on social issues. My plays on comedy carry a social message. The same are the plays on patriotism which carry a social message. Theatre is a medium that has great impact on viewers. Watch any movie and you forget it in few days, but one can cherish the live stage performance for years. If it's a good performance, it makes an immediate impact," said Umesh Kant, Director of the Theatre Lab.

There's no need for curtains as the theatre artists are out in public places to raise social ills such as tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption and the spread of epidemics like HIV/ AIDS.

These artists are from the Chandigarh Institute of Performing Arts (CIPA), a leading cultural organization.

The group organizes plays frequently in gardens, educational institutions and markets so as to target larger audiences. International recommendation is helping the theatre groups to work more efficiently.

Shyam Juneja, Director of the CIPA, said, "We are affiliated to UNESCO and we have been receiving their programmes regularly. We staged a play on AIDS, environment and pollution. We are now preparing a new play based on surrogate advertising because on one hand, we are doing advertisements on cigarettes and wine and on the other, we say no to its consumption."

'Kesro' is a popular Punjabi play, thriving on the potent theme of female adult education, depicted explosive truths about the institutionalized perpetual exploitation of illiterate rural folk by the cunning.

Simultaneously, the play offered a veritable analysis of the multifarious social evils, orthodox approach and lapses in governance, all laced with the crisp dialogues with rural sensibility.

Many say theatre is a dying art, which is not true. It is leading towards a new dawn by raising social ills.

ANI