From the main entrance of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy to the National Theatre Hall, it’s BotTala all the way. The premises of BSA wear a festive look as the BotTala Theatre Festival kicked off on Friday.
With a colourful decoration of the hall and its surroundings, the festival venue appears warm and inviting. On Friday evening, Shilpakala was set to its blazing mode of festivity and fanfare with amazing dance choreography by dance troupe Turangami as the opening of the festival.
Following was a short discussion session, where cultural personalities and academics thanked BotTala and conveyed their best wishes for the festival. Among the speakers were emeritus professor Serajul Islam Choudhury, Ramendu Majumder, Ataur Rahman, Mamunur Rashid, Sara Zaker, Lucky Enam, American actor-director Kawalini Lee.
The opening evening of the eight-day festival saw a show by the host troupe. As all the plays scheduled to be staged in the festival are recent productions by local and foreign troupes, BotTala also presented its recent production- The Trial of Mallam Ilya.
The play is a translation of Ghanaian playwright Mohammed Ben Abdallah’s homonymous play. Translated by Soumya Sarkar, the play has been directed by Mohammad Ali Haider.
Presented in narrative and character-shift style, the play is a take, to summarise, on power and politics, relation and reality. BotTala artistes Pankaj Majumdar, Kazi Ruksana Ruma, Samina Luthfa Nitra, Imran Khan Munna, Mizanur Rahman, Taufique Hasan, Bakirul Islam, Humaira Akhter, Abdus Salam, Hasnain Shikdar, Evan Reaz, Mohammad Rahim and Sheyuti Sheen Shahgufta acted in various roles in the play.
The second evening of the festival, on Saturday, saw noted troupe Aranyak Natyadal’s very recent experimental production Bhangabanga at the same venue, while Puppetiana, a puppet team, entertained the audience prior to the play in front of the hall.
Written by thespian Mamunur Rashid and directed by Faiz Zahir, Bhangabanga can be categorised as a tragicomedy. The play is an interesting and creative take on the separation of Bengal, in fact, any politico-geographical separation.
The play presents activities and people of India-Bangladesh border in Benapole and makes critical, scathing remarks, often in guise of laughter, on border and separation.
An interesting feature of the play is that all the characters in the play, are from different works of Tagore, though with different characteristics.
Today, local troupe Prachyanat will stage Bon Manush at the same venue at 7pm.
-With New Age input
