COVID PUT A FULL STOP
Theatre in Jammu was progressing steadily in the years before the inception of COVID-19 with so many production houses giving their best and even some proving their mettle in the national arena. Conventionally, theatre is considered as the greatest of all art forms for being so real and at the same time full of fiction and drama thus giving the audience to appreciate the limits of human tendencies to mesmerize people with talent, wit, tragedy and many more characteristics of human traits. No doubt that the theatre in Jammu has seen many ups and downs and for most of the time the ‘industry’–which it is not, has faced a number of problems mainly being arranging finances. The best thing which the theater of Jammu has witnessed if one considers its entire journey starting was the inauguration of JKAACL’s Abhinav Theatre which provided umpteen opportunities to the theatre production houses and the artists to showcase their talent in a vibrant manner with contours of the drama touching new limits and theatre surmounting all the hurdles in the past. Now there are many other options but the sad part is that the COVID-19 pandemic has played a spoilsport with this art form getting a setback of lifetime as no significant production has come out despite the lethal virus’s end and lifting of all sorts of restrictions by the government. Already, it was alleged that there are many theatre groups which emanate from nowhere during JKAACL’s annual drama festival and soon after the event is culminated these groups also pack up to once again crop up next year. It is sad state of affair that COVID has stopped the theatre in Jammu and has forced the people associated with this line to start afresh as theatre activity has been dropped considerably with the shrinking audience becoming extinct after the tension which the ailment corona gave to the society in the form of one of the most dangerous pandemics of all times. As things have improved the government should come up with a sop for the artists to restart the entire thing and once again put back life into few of the theatres of Jammu region, which offer world class facilities to artists to showcase their talent and entertain theatre lovers with their performances.