Bhawani Datt’s plays to be staged in various cities

Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, November 28

Theatre lovers in the state have started preparing for the centenary celebration of the first play of the Uttarakhand region written in 1919 by Bhawani Datt Uniyal who not only wrote the first play of the region in Garhwali dialect but also staged the play Satya Harishchandra in 1919.

“We have decided to begin staging of these plays, written in the last 100 years and staged at various locations by several unknown artistes from the first week of December in the Kumaon region. The plays will be staged at Almora, Pithoragarh, Champawat, Haldwani and Bageshwar in Kumaon region and Srinagar, Gopeshwar, New Tehri, Uttarakashi and Rudraprayag in Garhwal region in the coming months,” said Charu Tiwari, organiser of the programme and coordinator of Abhibyakti Kryashala, the organisation that initiated the move.

According to Tiwari, beginning with writing of ‘Usharodaya’ play in Kumaon by Kumauni king Rudrachand in 1582, the history of local plays in Uttarakhand region had come a long way. “Though the beginning of modern plays can be traced only from 1919, when Bhawali Prasad Uniyal wrote local play Jay-Vijay which followed writing of Khubsural Bal, Sapheed Khoon, Danvir Karna, Jin Lahore Nahi Dekhya, Roti, Kapda Aur Makaam and Murti Pooja. The plays have been written much before that in the region,” said Tiwari.