MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA

Catch the last two performances of the stage adaptation of Sanjeev Uprety's novel Ghanachakkar at Gurukul this Friday and Saturday at 4:30pm, (call 4466956, 2101332 for directions). If you get there on time, you'll be ushered in by ruffians dressed in military fatigues and thereafter treated to a mind-bogglingly adept and intimate performance from the talented cast directed by Sunil Pokharel of Aarohan Theatre Group. By the end of an hour and a half of mindgames, you may stagger out wondering if you haven't yourself been fundamentally disoriented.

Ghanachakkar is running in its second season here in Nepal, and depicts the mental state of a university professor (ostensibly the alter ego of writer Sanjeev Uprety, who is an English professor at Tribhuvan University). The protagonist himself is split into two alter egos played brilliantly by Kamal Mani Nepal and Bibhusan Basnet, and struggles to discern whether he is really going mad (as everyone seems to think), or if it is everyone else who is actually going mad.

Despite the morbid premise, Ghanachakkar is also a genuinely comic production, and the excellent lighting, music and choreography make for a spellbinding performance. Let's hope for an English-language production based on the upcoming translation in the not-too-distant future.

Rabi Thapa