Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Dharamvir Bharati’s classic ‘Andha-Yug’ is going to be staged after 40 years in Bhopal by a local theatre group. Earlier, the play was staged by Bharat Bhawan’s Rangamandal in 1983.
Set in the last day of the Great Mahabharata war, the five-act tragedy was written in the years following the 1947 partition of India, as allegory to its destruction of human lives and ethical values.
Around 35 artistes of the city, mostly senior citizens will perform in the play at Ravindra Bhawan on September 3 under the direction of director Balendra Singh, They include Saroj Sharma, Aseem Dubey, Ajay Srivastava, Arvind Bilgaiya, Milan Rawat, Nirmal Tiwari, Bharat Singh, Pankaj Chaubey and Mukesh Pachode.
The voices of Rishi Vyas and Shri Krishna have been given by eminent theatre and film actors Govind Namdev and Rajeev Verma. Morris Lazarus composed the music and props were done by Deepak Soni from Gwalior with costumes by Sonu Saha.
The rehearsal of the play has been going on at Mayaram Surjan Bhavan for the last three months. Founder of Hum Theatre Group, Balendra Singh said that the famous play will be staged after 40 years by a group from the city. ‘The idea of staging the play was in my mind for 25 years. After eight months of preparation, I am now able to bring it on stage. The production cost will be around Rs 5 lakh.’
‘I have included both prose and poetry in this play. It is a difficult and costly play in terms of dialogue delivery, acting, costumes and props,’ Singh added.
