The second Ganga Jamuna Theatre Festival in Bangladesh will end today through the staging of three plays at the three theatre halls of
Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
The Kolkata based troupe Anik will stage Protik at the National Theatre Hall, Shobdo Natyacharcha Kendra will stage Tritio Ekjon at the Experimental Theatre Hall and Natyadhara will stage Ayna Bibir Pala at the Studio Theatre Hall.
Anik’s Protik is an adaptation of the play Little Eyolf by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Adapted by Amalesh Chakrabarthy and directed by Moloy Biswas, the play focuses on family crisis.
It shows how the members of a close-knit family get detached from each other. The denouement of the play is to promote people to live together or to leave each other alone as depicted in the play.
Shobdo Natyacharcha Kendra’s Tritio Ekjon is written by Samir Dasgupta and directed by Ananta Hira. The play depicts the conflicts often taking place in contemporary urban conjugal life.
The play opens with the entrance of an apparently happily married couple. The husband is a professor and a career-oriented person, whereas the wife looks after the house. The lonely wife feels neglected as she has abandoned her own career and dreams for her marriage. The twist in the plot emerges when the husband realises that his wife is not honest and has an extramarital affair with someone else behind his back. The introduction of the third character named Bibek (conscience) makes the story run to multiple possible endings.
Natyadhara’s Ayna Bibir Pala is a folk-story based play dramatized and directed by Robiul Alam. It is done by the troupe in the old pala form where narrators narrate the story and simultaneously enact the roles.
The play revolves around the titular character Ayna Bibi, who is forced to suffer injustice like a lot of other common women of the then society. As an orphan, Ayna was brought up by her maternal uncle like a free, flying bird amid joy. But once she got married, her chastity is questioned by the society. Her husband – Uzzal – to her great dismay, sides with the society and leaves Ayna to find another wife.
Later he realises Ayna’s innocence, and tries to win her back. But, this time, the spirited Ayna refuses. Through her refusal, she proves her strength and questions the structure of the society that looks down on women.
-With New Age input
