The host troupe Prangonemor staged the premier show of its eighth production Irsha on Friday at the National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy as part of the Syed Shamsul Haque Theatre
Festival organised by the troupe.
Irsha focuses on the inherent feeling of jealousy that every lover is acquainted with. The play has only three characters, an aged, famous artist, a young girl and a young man. The play also has only seven dialogues by its three characters. The shortest one is of 12 minutes and the longest one is of around 26 minutes.
The aged artist and the young man are at daggers’ drawn to win the young girl. But the story is not that simple; it, rather, ramifies to the hidden corners of the human mind as it operates when under the incontrollable pangs of jealousy coming out of love.
Haque’s play Irsha (jealousy), directed by Ataur Rahman, was once a popular production in 1990s, which was used to be staged by Nagorik Natyasampradaya.
A former member of the troupe, Ananta Heera has directed the play in a new dimension for his current troupe Prangonemor.
‘I worked as a production manager when Nagorik staged the play. I have tried to simplify the set and tried to make it more suggestive by using background videos and audios,’ Ananta Hira told New Age.
Ramiz Raju, Nuna Afroz and Ananta Hira acted the roles of the aged-famous artist, the young girl and the young man respectively. They performed quite well. The passionate singing of lines from a number of songs by Ramiz Raju added necessary spice to the production.
Shahinur Rahman’s set and backstage decoration with multimedia projection of paintings enriched the aesthetic quality of the production. Zillur Rahman’s light design was also interesting.
Both Syed Haque and his wife Syed Anwara Haque were present in the show, which was enjoyed by a houseful audience. The couple praised the production in general, especially the acting of the three performers. Seasoned actress Lucky Enam praised the production saying, ‘It was an excellent production, well-planned and well-executed.’
-With New Age input
