Socially and politically aware playwright Samina Luthfa Nitra is working on a new play, featuring the lives and struggles of Birangonas (war-heroines).
She is writing the play in English and it will be staged in London by a London-based theatre troupe Komola Collective.
Nitra, also a theatre actress, talked about her latest venture and other endeavours. ‘In the play I will not go for a mere depiction of Birangonas as the neglected segment of war survivors who had to sacrifice the most for the independence of our country. I am drawing similarities between the birangonas and the character of Sita from the Ramayana who had to suffer in the hands of both Ravana and Rama’.
The play will be first staged on August 29 and 30 in Liberation War museum and EMK centre. After that the production will be staged in London.
Beside this one, the talented playwright is also translating 17th century English playwright Aphra Behn’s The Rover (1677). This play is a black comedy highlighting the conflicting relations between men and women.
She is also doing a play version of Iranian writer Marjane Satrapi’s novel Parsepolis, which features the story of an Iranian girl coming of age after the Islamic revolution.
‘Both the foreign works attract me for their relevance to our society’, Nitra told New Age.
Nitra has already garnered acclaim for her play Teerthankor, an adaptation of the story of Sohrab-Rustam of Shanama. The play has been staged more than 50 times in Bangladesh and India. Nitra’s reworking of the story focused on how power relegates men and their relations.
Another acclaimed production by the playwright is Khona. In this play, Nitra reworks on the mythical character of Khona, a female who had to sacrifice her tongue and life for being a truth-teller. This play also shows that power always reacts violently against outspoken truth and against anyone who upholds the truth.
Nitra’s creative pen has also produced a translation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
She has also authored two street dramas on the tragic deaths of the labours during two building collapses in the country. Ekjon Ruhul Amin features the six dead labours during the Rangs building collapse in 2007 and Jatugriha features the tragic fire incident at Tazreen that killed more than a hundred apparel workers last year.
‘I do not have any specific area to write on, but I like to address those incidents and happenings that demand me to write upon’, said Nitra.
Nitra is also an actor who now performs in almost all productions of theatre troupe Battala. Professionally, she is an assistant professor of Sociology at Dhaka University.
-With New Age input
