The village where Degree Maila lives seems to be one perpetually enshrouded in an enervating melancholy. The civil war has taken its toll over the people there, and they, for the lack of any other options, have relinquished themselves to petty indulgences. The local tavern is full of tipplers having their daily fill; the kids are concerned more about wooing their opposite sex than securing a better future. And women, as is the case in our society, are relegated to the margins.

Amidst all these ills, and in the backdrop of the ongoing violence, Degree Maila, the only person from the village to complete his master’s degree, holds the dream of transforming his village by building roads and a power plant and thereby turning his village into a tourist destination, which he hopes will transform the life of the villagers. What is his field of specialisation? How exactly does he plan to use his knowledge for the betterment of the village? We don’t know. But we do get a sense that this ‘Kathmandu returnee’ holds big dreams for his village.

Even the villagers are attracted to his vision and gather around him. They all have plans and dreams and visions of transforming the village and they think that Maila, as a well-educated person, holds the key to this transformation. But as the play progresses, the audience realise that Maila is as incapable of doing anything as everyone else in the village. All he can do is dream and share his dreams with others in a state of

inebriation.

The very fact that the play is being staged for the third time in as many years speaks volumes about the play. In fact, it might as well be considered one of the very few works in Nepali dramatic repertoire where experimentation is done with such finesse. Nothing actually happens in the play. Every time the villagers decide to take an initiative and do something (which logically would have led to an unfolding of the events), Maila disappears, and the plan is in a limbo. Thus the play is more a collage of dreams than a plot with a logical beginning and an end.

But by foregoing the conventional plot structure, the playwright also provides ample space for the actors to improvise, which, provided the actors are good, can lead to some brilliant executions.  The current iteration of the play involves actors like Bijay Baral, Somnath Khanal, Bikash Joshi, Sulakshan Bharati and Srijana Subba.

The play will be staged at Mandala Theatre, Anamnagar, Kathmandu, till December 21, every day except Mondays. The show begins at 4:30 pm