Mount Abu offers ‘A Soldier’s Wife’ a leaf from British history

Keki Contractor, the past principal of St Joseph’s High School, was all delight that he has presented all the major plays on Mount Abu, by the Chekov of Mount Abu, Sharman. He was ecstatic, as he shared in the August presence of none other than the deputy high commissioner of the UK, Geoff Wain, together with his wife Kathleen and the who’s who of Mount Abu that included the commanding officer of Gorkha Regiment, Mount Abu, Colonel Pramod Gahalot, MK Sirohi from the erstwhile royal house of Sirohi, Daivat Singh, principals of schools and other dignitaries, including even Dr Ramesh Patel principal from Palanpur of Modi Institute.
It was the occasion of presenting one more magnum opus on Mount Abu by Sharman with music by him and directed by KN Contractor, “A Soldier’s Wife”, a play on filial Lady Honoria, the Indophil wife of Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence, the AGG to the Vicroy, for Rajputana.
The loveable play on the friend of Mount Abu, Lady Honoria, was like the past blockbusters, ‘The Redeemer Of Gods’, ‘Curse Of The Love Lake’, ‘Abode Of Gods The Play’, and ‘The Fairy And The Bear’.
Exhaustive research went in to get just snatches of glimpses of Lady Honoria, as very little information could be obtained and that too rather sketchy. Much was retrieved tangentially from life of her husband, Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence. This restrained the playwright and prompted him to take literary liberty for dramatization, at certain turns and twists. All said and done, the final presentation gloriously brought alive the munificent, homely, filial, Indophil, proficient poetess, the wife of Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence, Lady Honoria.
The students carried the play with with finesse of maestros, for which, His Excellency was swayed by the stupendous performance by the students of St Joseph. Kathleen Wain, who herself was an armature theater person could not believe her eyes that the students executed such a tender, yet serious subjected with great élan. His Excellency was spellbound when he opined upon the leaf from British History, brought alive by the students, impeccably sans any flaw. He expressed that a bridge must be made between Mount Abu and Britain for art, culture, theater and literary activities.