Somoy staged the 50th show of its acclaimed production Shesh Sanglap on Sunday at the National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. This was the fourth day of the ongoing Nattyateerhta theatre festival titled Ponchadoser Ponchadin.
Translated from Tawfiq al-Hakim’s Arabic play Sultanuz Zannam jointly by Dr Syed Jamil Ahmed and Saiful Alam Chowdhury, the play explores, in an effectively humorous way, the legitimation of power.
The play revolves around a ‘mamluk sultan’, mamluk means owned slave, at the height of his power, who suddenly has to face the fact that he, a slave of the late former Sultan has never been manumitted, and, thus he is ineligible to hold the power and rule over his people.
As the sultan is a ‘mamluk’, it becomes necessary, according to the kazi (judge), to declare him as a possession of the state, and sell him at an auction with the hope of getting manumitted.
A concubine buys the sultan, and denies to free him, as was expected.
Pavel Islam was impressive in the role of the sultan. Other characters like kazi(judge) enacted by Riaz Mahmud, uzir(minister) enacted by Akhteruzzaman, slave merchant enacted by Tofail Sarkar were also well portrayed on stage.
The audience thoroughly enjoyed, particularly as the play ran through the scenes packed with humour and wit.
‘Though the play is of a distant past and from a distant land, its depiction of power (through a sultan) in a witty and revealing manner makes it relevant to our audience,’ said Akteruzzaman, director of the play.
Set design by Fayez Zahir and backdrop score by Komol Khalid enhanced the production’s overall delivery.
‘It is a fantastic story, meaningful too. I really liked it,’ said a delighted Swachchha Rahman.
‘We really enjoyed the play,’ added Tonmoy Reza after watching the show.
-With New Age input
