Darpan theatre group to mark its diamond jubilee with 10-day theatrical festival in Lucknow

LUCKNOW To mark 60 years of its establishment (in 1961), Darpan Theatre Association, one of the oldest theatre groups, is organising a ten-day-long national theatre performance from May 18 to May 27 at the city’s Sangeet Natak Akademi in its Sant Gadge Auditorium.

“The ten-day event will witness performance by several veteran, well-known and new theatre artists from Delhi, Mumbai, and Lucknow. Artistes and directors from films, theatres, TV serials will be performing during the gala festival. The event will be open to the public from 6:30 pm, the entry for which has been kept free,” said actor and scientist Anil Rastogi, general secretary, Darpan, while addressing a press conference on Tuesday.

“The event will be inaugurated by Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak. Jayveer Singh, Minister of Tourism & Culture will also be a part of the event. The inauguration of the festival will begin with a drama titled ‘Swaha’ by Shubhdeep Raha. Several other renowned theatre artists such as Anoop Soni, Juhi Babbar Soni, Atul Satya Kaushik, Usha Ganguly, and Ram Gopal Bajaj among others will also perform,” said Mukesh Singh, coordinator of the event.

“Over 200 old photographs of the 60-year-long journey of Darpan captured by Rakesh Singh over the period will also be displayed at the event. To give respect to the veteran members of the groups, several of them including Ram Govind and Vimal Banerjee, the founders of the group, BC Gupta, among others will be given awards,” said a press note shared by Darpan.

Earlier in the morning, a theatre discussion was held by the Darpan group at Sangeet Natak Academy. It was presided over by Padma Shri Raj Bisaria. Darpan was established in 1961 by Professor Satyamurti. Later, units were established in Delhi, Prayagraj, Bhopal, Sitapur, Bareilly, and Gorakhpur. The group has staged over 2,000 plays.