Guwahati: Women playwrights and directors will be the main focus of the 12th Annual Brajanath Sharma Memorial Inter-State Drama Festival at the district library from September 10 to 16.

The weeklong festival, organised by theatre group Sam-ahar Natya Gosthee in association with Indian Oil Corporation, will stage seven plays. The works of three women playwrights, three directors and one translator will be on show.

Samahar has been organising this annual theatre extravaganza since 2007 in the memory of the father of Assamese mobile theatre, Brajanath Sharma. A pioneer of modern Assamese theatre, he was the first to bring women on stage and introduce co-acting in the state in 1933.

The festival will kick off with an inauguration ceremony where the daughter and granddaughter of Sharma, Nirmala Mishra and Neelakshi Mishra Sharma, will light the ceremonial lamp.

The first play Baagh, written by Sisir Kumar Das and translated into Assamese by late Mamoni Raisom Goswami, will be staged by Jirsong Theatre of Guwahati on the opening evening. Directed by woman director Rabijita Gogoi, the play talks about two women - a Hindu and a Muslim - fleeing for their lives amidst raging violence, represented by a man-eater tiger.

On the second evening, city-based Samahar Natya Gosthee will stage Sitanath Lahkar's PIL-99, dealing with corruption in the name of supplying drinking water and how the verdict in the people's legal battle is stalled by powerful individuals.

Janaknandini, a play by Rudrani Sharma and directed by Tapas Saikia, will be staged by the Neinad Gosthee. It is based on the epic Ramayan with a new interpretation.

City-based Visual Creations will present their maiden show of Why Justice - Raise Your Voice, written and directed by Ankita Das. The play deals with harassment of women and gender bias.

Natya Gosthi of Jagiroad will present Jonaakar Gaan, a play written and directed by theatre personality Tarun Talukdar which revolves around a depressed youth.

A solo interactive English play - RIP - will be performed by writer and director Savita Rani of Pondicherry University which traces a woman's personal and political journey with satire and humour.

On the concluding evening, Sitanath Lahkar's comedy Chora Ubacha, by the host group, will raise some questions on people's beliefs on supernatural powers.

"We have focused on women playwrights and directors and are indeed fortunate to highlight the works of both veteran and young women in the field," said committee general secretary Lahkar.