Contact Aarohan Theatre Group
Gurukul, Baneshwor
Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel. 977-1-4466956,
2101332
Fax. 977-1-4477709
On Stage
Aarohan
adapted some of the great plays of the world to the Nepal context.
We have performed Sophocle’s Oedipus, Moliere’s Scapan,
Jean Paul Satre’s The Man Without a Shadow and The Respectable
Prostitute, Camus’ The Just and The Outsider, Brecht’s
The Good Women of Sichuan, Alexandre Vampilov’s The Elder
Son, Junji Kinosita’s Yu-Juru as well as a number of Indian
plays.
We regularly perform plays by Nepal’s own playwrights such
as Govinda Bahadur Gothale, Bijaya Malla, Abhi Subedi, and Ashesh
Malla.
Storylines of some Nepali plays:
"AGNI KO KATHA"
A Story of Fire
AGNIKO
KATHA or A STORY of Fires is a set in a certain monastery of the
Tibetan Buddhist order in the mountain of Nepal. The scenes and
other details are supposed to have semeiotic and symbolic rather
than naturalistic representation. It is play about concept, quest,
queries and quirks that the characters show during the course of
the action. A constant tension between a fixed space and spaces
not seen takes place in the play. Human beings are caught between
rigidity and movement. Characters disturbed by their information
about the fire that consumes an old library somewhere in the precincts
of the monastery, try to read more meaning in the simple event than
it is necessary. The fire only works as a catalyst that brings different
modes imagination together. The over interpretation or the misreading
of the letters consumed by the fire, the letters the monks and the
nuns have not seen or read, comes like a stone in the calm lake
casting ripples. The play bring together the sense of insecurity
caused by fires and the uncertainties that pervade the minds of
the acolytes, nuns and poet living under different conditions in
different monasteries, and meeting only occasionally. The overall
climate of uncertainty and burning prevailing in the region and
in the space where it is set, adds poignancy to the drama and characters'
action.
WE HAVE THE SAD MEMORIES OF THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY FIRES IN THE TYANGBOCHE
MONASTERY AT THE FOOT OF MT. EVERST IN 1989, AND LIBRARIES, SCHOOL/COLLEGES
AND PLACES OF LEARING. DRAMAS HAVE BEGUN AND ENDED AROUND ALL THESE
EVENTS.
"AARUKA PHULKA SAPANA"
Dreams of Peach Blossoms
This
short poetic play is written by a well-known poet and art scholar
Dr. Ahi Subedi, who has been long associated with both the teaching
and interpretation of drama and theatre. This play tries to capture
the indigenous tradition of drama and music in a symbolic form through
the use of poetic language and images, and projects the complex
and sombre story broken with a jerk by the tourist guides who dramatize
our own relationship with the cultural heritage and the maketisation
of the serious ideas and icons of time and place.
Sunil Pokharel, a very well-known Director of Arohan Theatre Group
established in 1982, has sought to capture the ethos of the Newar
culture that surrounds the play, the human stories behind the facade
of the cultural heritage of this country, that is also highly used
to marketise the indigenous narratives and their iconic representations
to a large group of foreign visitors to this city where stoned,
wooden artifacts and courtyards are replete exquisite patterns of
arts-carvings, sculptures and images. Pokharel has played in and
directed many plays written in foreign languages rendered in Nepali
and street theatres over the last two decades. Aarohan is one of
the few vibrant theatre groups well recognised both in Nepal and
outside. In this poetic play Pokharel has experimented with dramatic
presentation and techniques. The cast include some very well-known
theatre artists and directors.
Current Performances:
A Doll's House
A
Doll's House traces the awakening of Nora Helmer from her unexamined
life of domestic comfort. Ruled her whole life by either her father
or her husband, Nora must question the foundation of everything
she believes in when her marriage is put to the test. Having borrowed
money from a man of ill-repute named Krogstad by forging her father's
signature, she was able to pay for a trip to Italy to save her sick
husband's life (he was unaware of his condition and the loan, believing
that the money came from Nora's father). Since then, she has had
to contrive ways to pay back her loan, growing particularly concerned
with money.
Aarohan
adapted some of the great plays of the world to the Nepal context.
We have performed Sophocle’s Oedipus, Moliere’s Scapan,
Jean Paul Satre’s The Man Without a Shadow and The Respectable
Prostitute, Camus’ The Just and The Outsider, Brecht’s
The Good Women of Sichuan, Alexandre Vampilov’s The Elder
Son, Junji Kinosita’s Yu-Juru as well as a number of Indian
plays.
AGNIKO
KATHA or A STORY of Fires is a set in a certain monastery of the
Tibetan Buddhist order in the mountain of Nepal. The scenes and
other details are supposed to have semeiotic and symbolic rather
than naturalistic representation. It is play about concept, quest,
queries and quirks that the characters show during the course of
the action. A constant tension between a fixed space and spaces
not seen takes place in the play. Human beings are caught between
rigidity and movement. Characters disturbed by their information
about the fire that consumes an old library somewhere in the precincts
of the monastery, try to read more meaning in the simple event than
it is necessary. The fire only works as a catalyst that brings different
modes imagination together. The over interpretation or the misreading
of the letters consumed by the fire, the letters the monks and the
nuns have not seen or read, comes like a stone in the calm lake
casting ripples. The play bring together the sense of insecurity
caused by fires and the uncertainties that pervade the minds of
the acolytes, nuns and poet living under different conditions in
different monasteries, and meeting only occasionally. The overall
climate of uncertainty and burning prevailing in the region and
in the space where it is set, adds poignancy to the drama and characters'
action.
This
short poetic play is written by a well-known poet and art scholar
Dr. Ahi Subedi, who has been long associated with both the teaching
and interpretation of drama and theatre. This play tries to capture
the indigenous tradition of drama and music in a symbolic form through
the use of poetic language and images, and projects the complex
and sombre story broken with a jerk by the tourist guides who dramatize
our own relationship with the cultural heritage and the maketisation
of the serious ideas and icons of time and place.
A
Doll's House traces the awakening of Nora Helmer from her unexamined
life of domestic comfort. Ruled her whole life by either her father
or her husband, Nora must question the foundation of everything
she believes in when her marriage is put to the test. Having borrowed
money from a man of ill-repute named Krogstad by forging her father's
signature, she was able to pay for a trip to Italy to save her sick
husband's life (he was unaware of his condition and the loan, believing
that the money came from Nora's father). Since then, she has had
to contrive ways to pay back her loan, growing particularly concerned
with money. 
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