Newly formed theatre troupe Arshinagar staged the premiere show of its debut production Se Ratey Purnima Chhilo on Friday at the Experimental Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
Following the concept developed by Selim Al Deen, which is based on the traditional narratives and rejects the western concept of dramatic conflict, Al Deen’s student Reza Arif has presented Shahidul Zahir’s famous novel Se Ratey Purnima Chhilo through an artistically rich production.
Reza Arif has not converted the novel into a ‘typical drama form’. The actors, rather, narrated the novel and created the sequences through stream of words, relevant gestures and body movements.
‘In this production, I have followed the lessons I learnt of presenting narratives without violating the structure of any literary works from my guru Selim Al Deen,’ Reza Arif, assistant professor of Drama and Dramatics of Jahangirnagar University, told New Age.
For such an experimental production, Shahidul Zahir’s novel, which entwines many small stories in life of a man named Mafizuddin Mia, appeared as a perfect choice in which the villagers recall Mafizuddin Mia and his family members after they are murdered in a night.
Some of these stories followed the school of realism while some others followed the school of magic realism. So the audience got different falvours while watching the experimental play.
As the protagonist of the novel is from a village near Jamuna River in Sirajganj, a suggestive set depicting a boat has been used to narrate various stories related to waters and boats.
Twenty energetic actors performed spontaneously throughout the two and half hours production. Their perfect gestures, confident movements and brilliant voice modulations created different ambiences especially of moonlit night with the help of interesting light design.
A houseful audience enjoyed the production and praised the newly formed troupe comprised of the students and teachers of drama and dramatics department of Jahangirnagar University.
Professor Afsar Ahmed, an audience, termed the production ‘beautiful and compact’. Theatre director Sudip Chakroborthy also spoke highly of the production saying it ‘spontaneous and energetic’.
-With New Age input
