Repertwahr fest back in new avatar!

A curtain raiser to the festival will be held on September 2 and 3 with two plays dedicated to legendary playwright, actor and director Habib Tanvir. Main festival will be held from December 15-17.

After a gap of three years, the much-awaited Repertwahr Festival will be back in the state capital this year. The theatre, music and comedy extravaganza that was last held in the year 2019 was later postponed due to pandemic.

Repertwahr Festival was last held in 2019 in Lucknow.

The new addition to this year’s event will be a performance-oriented literature stage as well as a craft bazaar and food zone.

Originally held for seven days, the festival is making a comeback from December 15 to 17. A curtain raiser to the festival will be held on September 2 and 3 with two plays dedicated to legendary playwright, actor and director Habib Tanvir to celebrate his 100th birth anniversary which falls on September 1.

“We started as a small event in 2009 to pay tribute to him and with his grace it become a festival where we staged the country’s biggest plays and then added music, stand-up acts, meet-the-cast interaction and more. During the two-day curtain raiser event, epic plays Charandas Chor and Jin Lahore Nahin Vekhya Wo Janmya Hi Nahin will be staged at Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Academy. Both plays were originally adapted and directed by Habib sahib,” says Bhoopesh Nigam, organiser and co-founder.

The main festival this year will move from UPSNA and is expected to be held at the majestic La Martiniere College. “We are still curating the plays and are in the process of completing the final list as we want to offer engaging plays to the audience who have high expectations from us. Earlier, we wanted to present the best of plays from the 10 seasons, but we were unable to put them together, so we came up with a new line-up and all big production,” adds co-founder Priyanka Sarkar.

On the new add-on, Rai informs, “From regular panel discussions, we will have three hours schedule which will include performance-oriented acts like storytelling, Hindi and Urdu poetry singing and talks. Besides, this time we are adding food and bazaar arena to the festival.”