World Theatre Day, which falls on March 27, deserves a few words in celebration. The International Theatre Institute (ITI)—the largest performance arts organisation—takes the lead in global celebrations of this. Founded under UNESCO in 1948, the institute began celebrating Theatre Day in 1961, when people realised that performance art can save the world.

Nepal became a member of the ITI in 2000. Theatre artist and director Sunil Pokharel and I became the founding general secretary and president, respectively. Over time, other friends joined, too. Puskar Gurung and friends succeeded us in 2008. Today, Nepali theatre has made headways in diversifying performance activities through theatre groups, seminars, publications and colloquiums.

However, the challenge of matching ideology with the drama on the stage often struck the Nepali theatre creators at the erstwhile Gurukul Theatre in Kathmandu. As a playwright and member of the core group of the theatre, I understood the issue well. I knew the challenges and ecstasy of Sunil Pokharel, who performed my plays in Nepal, India and Europe. Other directors of my plays, including Puskar Gurung, Shiva Rijal and Yubaraj Ghimire, had similar experiences.

Sunil’s methodology necessitated creating a dramatic mechanism that would propel the energy of performance and elicit responses from the audience. He did that quite successfully for many plays and also answered questions from the audience regarding his approach. After performing my play Agniko Katha or “Story of Fire” at a theatre in Aalborg University, Denmark, Sunil faced a quaint question from a theatre academic: “When did the writer of this play die”? Pointing towards me, Sunil responded, “He wrote this play”.

To her, a play of such nature weaved history in a unique manner. Her question prompted a discussion about Roland Barthes’ concept of “the death of the Author” and the experience of a living author between us. We wondered if this Author question could also be applied to theatre. I would like to introduce this subject by shifting briefly to the realm of politics that presents different kinds of theatricality.

Performance and politics

Performance is an interesting exercise that shares similarities with politics. I am struck by the discussions in Nepali politics about changing the political actors or erasing familiar faces. Is it similar to the discussion in literature or theatre about how the text or the drama of politics continues even after you banish the authors or leaders?

I was reading an article by political scientist Krishna Khanal published in Kantipur ( March 25, 2025) with an eloquent and challenging title Netarajko Antya Kina? Or why is it necessary to end the domination of “netas” or political leaders in Nepali politics? That indicates the need to deconstruct the present political mechanism based on the structuration of what the British philosopher Bertrand Russell famously calls “leaders and followers”. To Khanal, Nepali politics is moving towards some kind of crisis because of the continuation or accentuation of the selfsame political personas in leadership roles. The questions remain daunting. Will things work out by banishing the leaders or the authors of the politics?

Theatrical turn

Nepali politics appears to confuse the serious with the trivial. The search for idioms to justify their politics is their well-known forte. Some evoke big idioms from leftist and democratic politics; some evoke the erstwhile monarchical system. The leftists do not evoke famous personas anymore because, in the post-political times, the imago effect would not work. Dictators everywhere seek to emulate the roles of inspiring leaders of the erstwhile times. They use all the accoutrements of a democratic system, like elections, to justify their rules. The greatest threat to democracy today comes from the system of creating democratically elected dictators.

Still, our system is democratic. Some major political parties have histories of struggle and quest for the right path. I see some transformations related to the concerned party’s policies and actions. The history of the old Nepali Congress has been documented and interpreted. The role played by political leaders like BP Koirala is central in the drama of the Nepali Congress. I have read sections of a book titled Nepali Communist Andolan ra Janakrantika Aitihasik Dastabejharu or “The Historical Documents of the Nepali Communist Movement and People’s Revolution” (2013). This collection provides a picture of a pattern of movement of the Nepali communists. The original document is a pamphlet issued on September 15, 1949, after the establishment of the Nepal Communist Party.

There are other documents like the one presented at the central committee by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, secretary general of the Nepal Communist Party (Mashal) in 1989, that call the armed struggle declared by the “Jhapa group” as meaningless, as they have adopted election as their political method. The general secretary of the communist party, Manmohan Adhikari, presenting his report at the first party conference in 1954, said, “The communist party in Nepal does not advocate for the concept of the establishment of socialism in Nepal, because it experiences that the present condition of the country is not appropriate for such programme”.

We know the courses that the Nepali Congress and the communist movements took in the following years. Other parties became prominent and also came to power. The monarchical system is gone. None of the erstwhile political parties remain in their earlier forms anymore. However, current political developments have taken a theatrical turn as the parties are trying to stage new dramas on the political stage. Now, the drama, though it looks serious, is a farce, a burlesque. After tragedy, farce comes to the political stage, says Karl Marx in his famous book The Eighteenth Brumaire Of Louis Bonaparte. The gossip of power change that is rife today, and the rumours churned out almost daily, however, show that Nepali society is at risk of losing hard-earned political gains.

A simple solution lies in making the most of the present political system. Our politicians must stop acting like jokers in a farce, as this could prove costly for the country. Remember, the world is changing and it can usher in difficult times for us. The leaders can perform their political farce, but not at the cost of the democratic system and all that we have earned. Politicians would do well to make theatrical quests in Nepali politics creative and meaningful.