Soutan by Balwant Gargi

The Play
The play is about one of the many incidents that have happened in the life of Balwant Gargi. Soutan deals with the incestuous relationship between a mother, a son and a daughter, in the mud courtyard of a village. Two hags unfold the action with song and drum; a witch doctor questions and lashes the characters, aiming at healing them; in the end the mother possessed by the spirit, of the dead daughter, in a fit of hate, strangles the daughter in law. What follows is a macabre scene of incest.

Director’s note
The play is about a triangular relationship of a mother, her son and her daughter in law. It revolves around the themes of lust, sarcasm, atrocity and the struggle between financial and physical possession. The characters mentally disguise themselves and enact all the forbidden feelings realizations and try to find the reality of their incomplete desired dreams.

The Director
An alumnus from National School of Drama, Satwinder Singh has come a long way since the day he started his career in Punjab. He developed his interest in set designing at an early stage of his life. He has designed sets for productions like Daughter of the Bin, Kudesan, Baba Bantu, Damroo, Mando, Vadda Banda Chotta Banda. At NSD, he did back-stage work for many plays. Now he is working with his own Amritsar based theatre group, Artistically Busy Unit.

The Playwright
A renowned personality of Punjabi Literature, Balwant Gargi is known for his raw presentations. nspired from an incident that happened in his childhood, he started writing this play in 1964 and completed its first draft in 1970. The incident left him an everlasting impression on his mind and he couldn't resist but thinking about it and penned it down.

The Group
This play is being presented as part of National School of Drama’s Graduate Showcase (Class of 2017), which aims to provide a platform for emerging theatre practitioners, allowing them to share their work with a wide audience.

Cast & Credit
On Stage : Aamir, Brinda,Pallavi, Manohor, Swati, Niranjan, Gurleen, Priyanka, Lakshmi, Gaytri, Talwar, Anjali, Deputy, Prabhjot

Stage Manager : Gopi
Music : Ravi Nandan
Lights : Ujjwal
Design & Direction : Satwinder Singh (Sunny Masson)