The weeklong Bangladesh Street Theatre Festival, organised by Bangladesh Pothonatok Parishad, ended on Friday, attended by hundreds of audience.
This year, a total of 23 Dhaka based and 18 regional theatre troupes staged their street productions at the festival. Among them, three theatre troupes brought new productions on stage. Dhaka-based troupes Subachan Natya Sangsad, Udichi and Vision Theatre brought Mrityur Khela, Daak Diye Jai and Sampritir Sandhane respectively.
On the last day of the festival, five street plays were staged by one Dhaka-based and four district-based troupes. The plays presented revolved mainly around contemporary politics and political history of the country.
Dhaka-based troupe Chandrakala Theatre staged its production Ajab Bakso. Written and directed by H.R. Anik, the play depicted the country as a strange box wherefrom comes strange things like corruption, falsehood, political violence, disrespect to history, etc.
Rajbari-based theatre troupe Swadesh Natyangan staged Ekatturer Rajbari, featuring the calamities that people suffered and the courage and resistance that they eventually showed during the war of liberation. The play was written and directed respectively by Ajay Das Talukder and Anup Kumar Ghosh.
Narayanganj-based Oikik Theatre staged a political satire titled Shidara. Written and directed by Shoaib Monir, the play satirically highlighted the spinelessness of the political leaders in the country.
Narsingdi-based Muktodhara Natya Sampraday staged Mamunur Rashid’s play Oi Ashe, which mocks the tendency of people to believe in gossips and whatever they hear, regardless of the spurce. The play was directed by Jahirul Islam.
The last performance was by Habiganj-based Shayestaganj Theatre’s production Digbaji. Written and directed respectively by Govinda Roy Sumon and Jalajuddin Rumi, the play showed somersault in behaviour and decisions by political leaders in the country.
One of the biggest platforms for street theatre practices, Bangladesh Pothonatok Parishad has been organising the festival since 2002 with a view to promoting street theatre and ensuring its practice across the country.
‘Street theatre, in contrast to mainstream theatre, emphasises more on contemporary and immediately-relevant issues. The practice of it should grow more’, said Ahmed Gias, convener of the festival committee.
‘Such festival also inspires the district-level theatre activists to be active and creative,’ shared Shoaib Monir, a member of Narayanganj-based Oikik Theatre.
-With New Age input
