Theatre troupe BatTala will welcome 2014 through staging the premiere show of its latest production The Trial of Mallam Ilya at Natmandal of
Dhaka University tomorrow.
The troupe will stage two more shows of the Bangla version of the Ghanaian play on the next two days at the same venue.
Soumya Sarker has translated The Trial of Mallam Ilya into Bangla from the Ghanaian playwright Muhammad Bin Abdullah’s play with the same title.
Directed by Mohammad Ali Haider, the play is the fifth production of BatTala.
The story of the play revolves around a corrupt high ranked political leader, Ilya, being captured by a group of common people who long suffered the injustice by the leader. The head of the revolutionaries, Malwal, brings Ilya into trial for all the crimes he has committed by taking advantage of his position. The play takes a sheer turn when the shrewd Ilya manages to turn the table and put the blame on Malwal.
The director Mohammad Ali Haider told New Age that the troupe has selected the play as it is very relevant to the contemporary local political scene. ‘We have selected the play to show how mean politics can be,’ said Haider.
‘It’s a difficult play to be staged as it has stories within stories. So, I’ve adapted the Ghanaian play in “non-linear” manner, which means that the play does not have any specific sequence of events,’ he added.
BatTala artistes Pankaj Majumder, Toufique Hasan Bhuiyan, Kazi Roksana Ruma, Samina Lutfa Nitra, Mizanur Rahman, Abdus Salam, Imran Khan Munna, Humaira Akter and others play different characters in The Trial of Mallam Ilya.
-With New Age input
