Prachyanaut staged its latest production Ban Manush, a translation of contemporary American playwright Eugene O’ Neill’s The Hairy Ape, on Saturday at the National Theatre Hall of
Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
Earlier, Prachyanaut School of Acting and Design had staged the same play in Bangla with the original title of O’Neil’s play directed by Baqar Bakul in last January where the students of the school performed.
In Prachyanaut’s production, Bakul directs the translated play that has a more elaborate and accurate form in order to articulate the message of the original play- how unjustly the working class is treated in the capitalist world through depicting the tragedy of a brutish person named Yank.
The regular members of Prachyanaut contributed to develop the Bangla version of the play and also acted in it.
The play begins with sombre vocals and the workers of the ship gesticulating in a bestial manner, swaying from left to right, with two men overboard monitoring their movements. One of them even uses a whip on the workers who scream like beasts in response. A gloomy ambience has been created with dim light.
Subsequently, the play features Yank and others loading coal into the engine compartment of a ship generating intense heat which has been demonstrated through the use of lights. Yank realises that the workers are living beings, while the gentry above are ghosts, ‘too delicate to actually live.’
Over onboard, one of the daughters of the captain of the ship wants to see below the decks. Dressed in white she says she wishes to see the plight of people.
Seeing the misery of the labours, the young woman calls Yank a ‘savage ape’ who begins to nurture an intention of taking revenge for the insult hurled on the working class.
When the ship docks into the city, Yank goes to seek out the woman but he gets sent to jail due to causing trouble. Using pantomime movements, the actor shows Yank’s escape and soon he lands himself in an actual zoo.
Here the production, directed by Baqar Bakul, takes the liberty to illustrate the zoo using the social dimension; the sign says ‘World Political’ and highlighted are three main cages- ‘LDP cage’, ‘Socialist Cage’ and ‘Fundamentalist Cage.’
The production also illustrates the play’s finale: an actor comes on stage and shouts ‘Another world is possible’ and we see the gorilla being affectionate to Yank and giving him a cap. It is Che Guevara’s cap and soon a group of performers dance rhythmically pumping up the adrenalin and bringing the production to an end.
-With New Age input
