Kathmandu, Aug. 3 -- Last Thursday, July 29, at Shilpee Theatre was the premiere of Pabitra Khadka's play 'Miss Menuka: Ek Sambhedanshil Younkarmi'. An adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre's La Putain Respectueuse (A respectable woman), the play deals with themes of power, politics, sexuality, society and communal violence, ever relevant for any country and at any time. The last of those, namely communal violence, has unfortunately become all the more important in Nepal in recent days.

Miss Menuka, convincingly played by Sarita Giri, is the prostitute in question, playful, young, full of life and important to the story - rather principled, much more than anyone else in the play. Giri's character manages to be both serious yet funny at the same...