Kathmandu:

The play begins with school students getting ready for school and standing in line for the morning assembly. Then all students gather in a class and a teacher starts teaching a group; in another scene students of different classes have to study in the same room which is very chaotic. And as the play moves forward focus is on various other issues that students in the country’s villages are facing like lack of educational materials, improper lavatory, disparity between girls and boys. And amidst all this, things get even worse when the school building which is in a pathetic condition gets ruined in an earthquake and they are forced to study outside in the sun and rain. But that is not the end of the miseries of these young students. Unavailability of basic necessities like clean drinking water becomes the reason for the death of one of the students.

The play Think About School Environment brought forth these issues which need to be readily addressed. The concept for the play was developed by Environmental Camps for Conservation Awareness (ECCA-Nepal) in collaboration with The Himalayan Theatre and Team for Nature and Wildlife. The play was staged at Gurukul from June 20-22. Director Rabindra Singh Baniya J B Ruwali says, “We have just tried to create awareness about issues prevalent in schools. Even we grew up in such conditions and have taken characters and incidents from our school lives and the concepts that ECCA provided us with. The play is filled with a lot of humour to give it a special flavour without disturbing the story but giving it an interesting flow.”

And the humour does make the play interesting. The actors have done a good job, especially the children’s behaviours have been depicted well giving the play a natural flow and adding a comic element too. Besides this, serious issues have been aptly woven into the play and brought out without making it too tedious.

The play will be staged at Gurukul on June 28 at 3:00 pm. Tickets will be available at the venue.