Kathmandu Pahuna Gharki Sahuni is a Nepali adaptation of Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni’s play The Mistress of the Inn. The play is being staged at Shilpee Theatre, Battisputali from April 24. Narrating the story of a coquette in her inn, it makes audience laugh with its humour. What makes it fun to watch the play is the presentation of comedy with a realistic touch, and the funny acts of characters complementing it. Menaka (Inesha Bhattarai) is running an inn after her father’s death. She is beautiful and so men are attracted to her. Kaji (Matrika Ghimire) and Adhikari (Namaraj KC) are two such men who fight with each other to get Menaka. Kaptan (Sonam Lama), another guest in the inn, doesn’t find anything remarkable and interesting about women. And he is not interested in Menaka. So as to teach a lesson to Kaptan (about his attitude towards women), Menaka makes a plan. Revolving around Menaka and the three guests in the inn, the play is enjoyable and makes you emotional at the end. It is amusing to watch men fighting for a girl. Men showering costly presents and trying to woo her are comical. The play has some suspense too, but it is predictable. In the acting department, Bhattarai is surely a ‘Menaka’ (a celestial nymph who is believed to be sent to earth from heaven to lure the revered sage Vishwamitra as per Hindu mythology) as she infects the stage with her charm and beauty. She gets into the skin of the character of a woman who can lure men. KC and Ghimire are average in their performances but they make you laugh with their acts. However, it is Sangita Urawa, the helper of Kaptan who steals the show with her brilliant acting. The movement of her eyes, her comic oratory skill, funny looks, dress-up, and her performance of both the helper as well as a woman with dreams are spot on. Pahuna Gharki Sahuni is simple in presentation. It has minimal use of props and has not made much use of lights. However, it makes you laugh till the last few scenes. The play ends on a serious note on the transient nature of beauty. The play is being staged till May 12 everyday at 5:30 pm except on Tuesdays.