The Department of Theatre organized the first leg of Stage Play in the Audi. Stage Play is an opportunity for participating teams to show off their thespian skills. The judge for this year’s Stage Play is Shilpi Marwaha. The four teams from Trinity Institute, BITS Pilani, Dayal Singh and Vivekanand Institute put up their performances. Each of the plays ran for approximately an hour.

First up was Trinity Institute of Professional Studies. Their comedic play was about a man who is duped into buying an “invisible” suit for an exorbitant amount of money. It was a sunny kickoff to the competition, with loud and lively performances and ample encouragement from the audience. The absurdity of the premise combined with a shirtless scene left the audience in splits. Also, being the only comedic performance in the first leg, it left a lasting impression on the audience against the dramatic performances that followed.

The second performance of the day was by BITS Pilani, which saw an uptick in audience attendance. Their drama was centered around a prostitute’s life and its impact on her son. It played with a lot of dark themes, including child and adult rape. The screams at the end kept echoing around the hall a few seconds after the curtains drew shut, and the performance received a standing ovation.

They were followed by Dayal Singh Institute. Their play was about a man who begins to contemplate his life and humanity, and is declared insane and put on medication. It was a moment or two after the curtains closed that the first claps echoed around the auditorium–and even then, the applause was scattered and uncertain. Particularly memorable was a song sung by a boatman from the man’s imagination that drew applause from the audience.

The drama by Vivekanand Institute of Professional Studies was the final performance of the day. The theme of their play could essentially be summarized as “We Live in a Society”. The performance was a motley of different sketches about technology, depression, and suicide, concluding with a penultimate monologue and powerful imagery. The curtain folded on a vibrating phone sitting along on a bench, the audience applauded, and the first leg of Stage Play was over. The second leg is scheduled for Day 2.