"Death sits on his throne after killing..." Subhash Gupta

Skepticism was staged as the concluding performance of two days festival organized by #Nirtya’s Hyderabad #Theatre Weekend on 23rd & 24th February, 2019 by #The Unknown Pen as its first production.

The play is written and directed by #Amaan Ahmad who is also the founder of the group.

It is a psychological and philosophical play, which touches the elements of absurdism, surrealism and skepticism. The story revolves around a psychologically disturbed artist who is going through an existential crisis and wants to commit suicide. Several emotions surround him and each emotion tries to prove its power over the human mind. Meanwhile, Reality and Imagination are also around the artist. As the play progresses, the protagonist gets confused trying to choose between Reality and Imagination while Chaos and Insanity overpower all the other emotions and Insanity instigates the artist to die.

Amaan's depiction of Artist & his emotions

The artist is in pain and is confused as the emotions have a philosophical debate. Reality points out logical reasoning, while Insanity, along with other strong emotions, argue about the actual meaning of life and its futility.

Toward the end, Death emerges and kills all the emotions, with Hope being the last. Death sits on his throne after killing the artist, but Imagination and Reality are still there as Death cannot touch either of them. The play concludes with the artist lying down on the ground while Reality and Imagination walk off hand-in-hand, smirking at one another. To conclude, we don’t know whether the artist is alive or dead or whether that was artist’s imagination or reality, says Amaan.

The director very judiciously chose different colors to present each emotion i.e. Blue for Sorrow, Green for Hope, White for Solace, Grey for Chaos, Lavender for Satisfaction, Yellow for Happiness and Black for Reality. Each emotion presenting it’s view to the protagonist- The Artist whether to die or live.

Death rules..., is it? Check Amaan's Answers

Each actor – #Shilka Agarwal, #Pratibha Agarwal, #Tina Mangwani, Kedar Subhedar, #Nehal Nayani, #Arti Parikh, #Matthew Daniel, Sanay Srivastava, #Ayaz Pasha, #Vinaya Sharadha and #Patruni Chidananda Sastry acted their roles very well. Little control on their voice throw would have given more charm to the voice modulation.  The actor who stands out is the Protagonist played by #Niteesh Pandey. Pandey had a difficult role to react to each emotion without uttering a word in the entire play which showed his brilliancy as an actor.

Costumes designed by Sd# Heena were thoughtfully done. Music by #Vedam Vamsi suited the play but was mostly over powered by the high pitch of dialogue delivery. Lighting was apt and handled very well by #Krishna Shukla using available resources particularly in the last scene when death confronts the protagonist.

Skepticism is no ordinary play, which #Amaan crafted and presented superbly in given space limitations of a very small stage and availability of lights which otherwise would have upped the performance many notches. Never the less It was a treat to watch the play progressing on a particular speed without a trace of boring moment which is the testimony of heartening response received at curtain call from the jam packed house.

Amaan we seek more such presentations from you.

Something about the Reviewer: #Subhash Gupta is a veteran Stage, TV and Radio Artist. He started his drama journey in 1967 in Delhi and has performed in many films, serials and over 500 theater performances. He had been honored by Delhi Natya Sangh on World Theatre Day for his contribution to meaningful theatre. He has directed several plays in Delhi & Hyderabad and has worked with many a legendary actors.