Delhi Theatre Festival soars new heights in its 5th Season
01st October 2024: Last weekend, Delhi Theatre festival (DTF) created a kind of history with its 5th season. 15000+ theatre lovers thronged into 4 venues spread across the length and breadth of the city, over 3 days, to watch theatre like never before.
Twelve shows hand-picked by the festival team brought giants of theatre into the city. These legendary performers included greats like Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Shabana Azmi, Lillete Dubey, Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, to name a few.
The fifth season of the highly anticipated DTF was organized by Alchemist Live, in collaboration with the American Express – the title sponsor of DTF for the fifth year in a row, demonstrating a commitment to performing arts and culture in the city.
The plays performed during the festival were staged at four iconic venues in Delhi NCR – Siri Fort Auditorium, Kamani Auditorium, OP Jindal Auditorium and the Orana Convention in Gurugram, ensuring easy access to theatre to audiences across the city.
Sharing delight over the grand success of the fifth season of DTF, COO and Co-founder of Alchemist LIVE, Mr. Prabhu Tony, stated, “The Delhi Theatre Festival has always been a theatrical extravaganza for all and this year, the fifth season of the festivity was also a potpourri of captivating performances by some of the legends in the field of performing art. The zeal and fervour among the audiences was the testament of how much the stellar performances made the festival a grand success. It was also a privilege to have American Express joined us as the title sponsor for the fifth year in a row. This depicts American Express’ fervent dedication towards promoting indigenous art and culture.”
The plays that created new benchmarks in the theatre segment during the festival included Old World by Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah, which premiered in Delhi. Other notable plays were Salaam Noni Appa by Lillete Dubey, Yateen Karyekar, Jayati Bhatia, Rishi Khurana and Gillian Pinto, Anything but Love by Mandira Bedi and Samir Soni, Broken Images by Shabana Azmi, One on One Dhamaal by Anu Menon, Ajitesh Gupta, Gagandeep Riar, Rajit Kapur, Shikha Talsania, Sohrab Ardeshir, Sumeet Vyas, and Vrajesh Hirjee, Jaya – A Rock Musical of the Mahabharata by Megan Murray, 2Blue, Vikrant Chaturvedi, Asif Ali Beg, Sherrin Varghese, Varun Narayan and What’s Done is Done by Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Waris Ahmed, Chandrachoor Rai, Mantra, Radhika Mehrotra, Mansi Multani, Mallika Singh, Chakori Dwivedi, Munish Bhardwaj & Ravi Kalra.
Since its inception, the Delhi Theatre Festival has become a cornerstone of Indian theatre in Delhi NCR. Each season has showcased a mesmerizing curation of plays, electrifying performances by renowned actors, and a vibrant atmosphere that celebrates the magic of live theatre. Says Manish Porwal, Managing Director of Alchemist Marketing Solutions, “Delhi Theatre Festival was conceptualised with a vision to take the best work in theatre to different cities. With this thought, this is the year for the launch of Bengaluru Theatre Festival. Our next stop before DTF Season 6, is in Bengaluru with Season 1 of Bengaluru Theatre Festival that opens its gates for theatre lovers on December 6th-8th this year.”