Lost and Found

In the organizer's words:

The literary piece "Lost and Found" deals with gender inequality in Nepalese culture, which is still very patriarchal. For example, Nepalese women without proof of a father are not recognized as citizens. The play draws attention to this grievance and uses two narrative strands: a modern and a mythological one, which reinterprets the legend of Buddha Gautama in terms of gender. The play is performed in Nepali and translated with English/German subtitles.

On stage: Pabitra Khadka (actress) Sumit Bhandari (actor) Govinda Oli (actor) Suhana Acharya (actress)
Crew: Yubaraj Ghimire (writer and director), Rabin Pariyar (lighting and technical), Sushila Bishwakarma (music), Anup Timilsina (music)

Author's and director's note (Yubaraj Ghimire)

It amazes me how the state and the government can suddenly make someone stateless. I have seen many young people living without citizenship in the country where I live. The government has robbed us of the opportunity to be citizens of the world. Why does the country we are born into impose so many conditions that make some people stateless and others citizens of different status, like third, second or first class citizens? Why is humanity restless in today's modern society? Why do relationships that people have formed on the basis of their own preferences break up in the blink of an eye? Why has humanity lost its way in many ways in the name of seeking peace? Such questions inspired me to write this play. The play is meant to arouse the curiosity of the audience. It aims to facilitate a dialog between different emotional states. I hope that I can also learn something through these dialogs and discussions. I express my own curiosity with this piece. And in doing so, I am also looking for new ways to tell stories. I believe that creativity and craft are crucial in theater. With this play, I want to share a little story from my society with the world.

Further links:

https://shilpee.org.np/europe-tour/

https://philipp-neuweiler.de/html/shilpee-europa-tour.html

https://www.instagram.com/theatreshilpee/

Why the European tour?

The intention: The performance of a Nepalese play in Germany offers a unique opportunity for artistic and cultural exchange and to overcome national borders through art. For the Shilpee, theater and activism are inextricably linked: Through art, social grievances should be addressed and a change in thinking should take place.

Intercultural exchange: By telling the stories of our society through theater, a profound cultural exchange takes place. This will help us artists to develop further. By sharing art and stories through theater, we will not only learn to understand the differences, beauty and difficulties of people living in different countries, but also discover our similarities. It will help us to overcome national borders and understand each other as people of this earth.

Learning from each other: As Shilpee Theater, we are very committed to our local theater culture, but there is no formal theater training in our country. Some of our artists have gone abroad to receive such training and then returned to devote themselves fully to their work at Shilpee. Our aim is to refine and enhance our work. We want to better understand the craft of theater and the many ways in which stories can be told. We can learn a lot from theater festivals and tours. Our fairy tales and folk theater are rich, but we don't have a long history of modern theater. This is highly developed in Europe. We can learn a lot from countries like Germany, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. That's why we want to travel to these countries, to better understand life and society there in order to grow as artists.