Teerondaz Natyadal’s latest production Kanthanalite Surjo satirises brutal realities of the contemporary society through an absurd story portraying the sun being stuck in the throat of a man.
The troupe staged the 10th show of the play on Monday at Studio Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
The late Indian poet-playwright Mohit Chattopadhhay’s theatre of absurd features four major characters. The protagonist appears on stage with an irrational affliction that the sun has got stuck in his throat, which symbolically portrays the suffocation that every individual undergoes in the materialistic, sell-sale society.
The playwright has not given any name to the protagonist, perhaps to imply that everybody in the society is undergoing the same troubling experience.
As the play progresses, the audience also may feel stuck with the erratic, irrational stream of words uttered by the protagonist, which is a major characteristic of theatre of absurd. At one stage, the protagonist goes through a psychotic phobia that he has become a dog and the people will never let him be free. Deepak Sumon’s soulful presentation of the sequence in the role of the protagonist grabs the attention of the audience.
‘Mohit Chattopadhhay’s plays are never simple. This play apparently seems to contain an absurd story, but it ramifies to different philosophies, mainly to existentialism’, said Rajib Dey, director of the play.
Like any other theatre of absurd, Mohit Chattopadhhay’s play does not end with a conclusion; rather it ends absurdly on a note of frenzied phobia of the protagonist.
Shafikul Islam, Sharif Ovi, Toufikul Islam Emon and Mitali performed commendably in their respective roles.
The set for the play is simple as all the incidents of the play take place in two rooms. Amlan Biswas’ light design has also been kept deliberately simple, while Rifat Ahmed Nobel’s background music is suitably interesting and goes well with the absurd twists and turns of the play.
-With New Age input
