A group of ‘custodians’ enter the stage with brooms in their hands singing “We will wipe out the sins. We will wipe out the mistakes. We will wipe out the sorrows from the world. We will out the sins from your hearts. We will wipe out all bad thoughts and purify this world. we will wipe out... wipe out... wipe out...”
The skit Surgical Wipe Out by Silver Hills Higher Secondary School, Kozhikode, on the theme of abolishing inequalities and injustices from the current society deals with four subjects by depicting them in an equally comical and intense manner.
The ‘custodians’ first engage with a child abuser, who lured a girl by offering chocolate, by dumping him in a frog-shaped dustbin. They later remove a brutal policeman, who attacked and hurled caste slur against a vegetable vendor after refusing to pay for the vegetables, a cruel landlord, and a drug peddler from the society by disposing of them in the bin.
The English skit competition in the high school category at the 62nd State School Arts Festival held at S R Auditorium in Kollam on Thursday witnessed socially relevant and contemporary issues, rising communal discord, political repression and so on coming to the fore. Many of the skits won applause from the audience.
The skit Brrr by Sacred Heart Girls Higher Secondary School, Thalassery, depicts a tale of how silly things are blown out of proportion. It tells the story of a newlywed couple wherein the husband seeks divorce from his wife for the latter’s farting habit. The issue escalated and became a communal problem. Another skit Utopian Circus by Girls High School sheds light on the strangling of free speech through government censorship and other methods.
A total of 17 teams participated in the competition. Of them, 11 teams secured A grade and five teams bagged B grade.
