Front page: a comic play staged to a full house in Delhi

A comic play, The Front Page, recently took Delhiites inside the fast-paced world of journalism. An adaptation of a 1928 Broadway hit by the same name by Dramatech Theatre Group, it was staged to a full house at Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts. Set in the Delhi of the ’90s, the play is about tabloid journalists on the crime beat. In the play, a group of journalists work in a newsroom next to a jail, where a hanging is about to take place.The plot follows the journalists in their attempt to get an exclusive on the hanging and the accused, Anthony D’Souza, before their rival organisations do. The journalists experience hiccups in the form of corrupt politicians and police officials getting in the way of them unveiling the truth.
Vivek Srivastava and Rahul Agarwal
The script had the crowd cracking up, and theatre doyens Ranjit Kapoor and Amitabh Srivastava were also in attendance. Director Sanjiv Agarwal, who has also directed plays like A Streetcar Named Desire, Ek Jaam Auntiyon ke Naam and Accidental Death Of An Anarchist, said, “Scores of pen-wielding warriors put their lives on the line every day to unearth the truth. This play seeks to pay homage to this spirit, even as the reporters are depicted as hard-nosed hacks who will stop at nothing to get the story first.”
CAUGHT! Stuti Sharma and Raghav Mehra during the play
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Sanjiv Chopra and Pankaj Vermani
Director Sanjiv Agarwal
-Alfea.Jamal@timesgroup.com