Five plays from Lucknow, Kanpur, Gorakhpur and New Delhi to be staged; special commemorative souvenir to be released
Lucknow: Darpan Lucknow, one of the country’s leading amateur theatre organisations, will organise a five-day ‘Prof. Satyamurti Birth Centenary Theatre Festival’ from November 16 to 20, 2026, to mark the 100th birth anniversary year of its founder, late Professor Satyamurti, popularly known as ‘Maassab’.
Organised with the support of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, the festival will be held at Sant Gadge Ji Maharaj Auditorium in the Sangeet Natak Akademi premises, Gomti Nagar. All performances will begin at 7.05 pm.
Five plays by theatre groups from Lucknow, Kanpur, Gorakhpur and New Delhi will be staged during the festival. The programme will open on November 16 with ‘Khalal’, written by Gulrez Haider (Irshad) and directed by Nikki Narula, presented by Checkmate Production Company, New Delhi.
The subsequent performances will include ‘Khanche’ on November 17, written by late Raghunandan Trivedi and directed by Aru Vyas (Darpan, Kanpur); ‘Deeksha’ on November 18, based on a novel by late Narendra Kohli, adapted by Manvendra Tripathi and directed by late Alok Chatterjee with Manvendra Tripathi as co-director (Darpan, Gorakhpur).
Darpan Lucknow will present ‘Swaha’ on November 19 and ‘Poornam’ on November 20, both written and directed by Shubhdip Raha.
The selection of ‘Poornam’ for the National School of Drama’s prestigious Bharat Rang Mahotsav, scheduled for February 2027, marks a significant achievement for the Lucknow unit. With this selection, seven of its productions have now been chosen for the international theatre festival. Four of these selections have come in the past five years.
The festival also pays tribute to Professor Satyamurti (1925–1987), who founded Darpan in Kanpur on January 15, 1961, and played a major role in developing the amateur theatre movement in Uttar Pradesh. Under his leadership, the organisation expanded to Lucknow in 1971 and Gorakhpur in 1976, bringing renowned National School of Drama directors to the state to train emerging theatre artists. He received the Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1974–75 for his contribution to theatre.
A special souvenir documenting his life, theatre journey and the five festival productions will also be released.
Established in 1961, Darpan Lucknow has staged nearly 300 plays with more than 2,000 performances across the country. Its senior theatre personality and general secretary, Dr Anil Rastogi, was recently conferred the Padma Shri in 2026.
Online tickets will soon be available on BookMyShow. For offline tickets and donor cards, theatre enthusiasts can contact 9415087160, 9415027587 or 8960321509.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=RtToJsBhYBatUrym&v=mOuYNSdhjHA&feature=youtu.be
