Bhopal: ‘10th Satra Samapti Natya Samaroh’ Takes Off

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A four-day ‘10th Satra Samapti Natya Samaroh, began with a play ‘Suhane Afsane’ at Ravindra Bhawan in the city on Thursday. Madhya Pradesh School of Drama (MPSD) organised the event for outgoing students of 2022-23 batch.

Directed by Vidyanidhee Vanarase ‘Prasad’, the comedy is based on ‘The Good Doctor,’ penned by American playwright Neil Simon. The play comprises of nine short stories, written by Russian author Anton Chekhov which depicts ordinary incidents of a commoner which occur in their daily life that take extraordinary forms.

Students of MP School of Drama of 2022-23 batch presented the two-hour twenty-minute play in realistic style with comic punches. This was the last production of the batch.

The story ‘The Sneeze,’ based on ‘The Death of a Government Clerk’ revolves around a saga of a government clerk apologising and having a nervous breakdown after accidentally sneezing on a general during a night out at the opera.

‘Surgery’ is based on the eponymous title in which a sexton visits the dentist complaining of a toothache, but the dentist's zeal for his profession begins to frighten his patient. ‘Too Late for Happiness’ is about an older man and woman contemplating making time for each other in song.

‘The Drowned Man’ is about an entrepreneurial tramp who pretends to drown himself to make money, calling what he does ‘maritime entertainment’. ‘The Audition’ is about an actress who walked four days from Odessa to Moscow to give audition for the writer's next play and uses most of her audition time to gush over the writer.

‘A Defenceless Creature’ is about a woman with a nervous disorder harassing an ill banker to extort money for her injured husband. ‘The Arrangement’ is about a writer's father who takes his shy19-year-old son to a brothel to make him a man.