Pune: The city will be able to see three mental health plays at the Manorang theater festival to be held at The Box, Erandwane, at Marathi Rangabhoomi Din on November 5.
Parivartan, the NGO started by the late rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and run by his son Hamid Dabholkar, and theater director Atul Pethe have collaborated to organize the festival.
The one-day event will showcase three works by young theater directors. Nashik’s Sachin Shinde’s “Na Kelelya Nondi”, Kalyan’s Abhijeet Zunzarao’s “Rangeet Sangeet Gondhal” and Pune’s Kshitij Date’s “To Rajhans Ek” will be performed free of charge on Saturday afternoon.
“The idea is to raise awareness about mental health through theater. It’s an effort to get people to not just think of mental health as an illness, but as something that everyone goes through and how they deal with it. We have often used theater as part of therapy and these plays will show how to deal with mental problems,” said Hamid.
Pethe said, “We organized a special workshop two months ago and invited young directors and actors to discuss, read poetry with actor Dr. Mohan Agashe, Anjali Joshi, Chandrashekhar Phansalkar who helped them understand mental health and direct new plays. The essence of these works is to show how mental health is treated.”
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