Mohakal Theatre Fest
Two classics and a contemporary play to be staged today
Two classics and a contemporary play will be staged today at three different venues as part of the theatre festival arranged by theatre
troupe Mohakal Natya Sampraday.
Padatik Natya Sangsad will stage Shakespearean classic tragedy Macbeth at the National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy; Dristipat Natyadol will stage Raja Himadri at the Experimental Theatre Hall of BSA and Shobdo Natyacharcha Kendra will stage Tritio Ekjon at the Chhayanaut Auditorium.
Translated by Syed Shamsul Haque and directed by Sudip Chakroborthy, Macbeth features a military general’s ambition and evil promptings to become the king in the wrong way. Killing the former king, the brave military person took power and kingdom only to be foiled eventually by the insurgency of his own conscience.
Dristipat’s Raja Himadri is an adaptation of the tragedy King Oedipus by the famous Greek philosopher Sophocles. Translated by Shambhu Mitra, the play has been adapted and directed by Khandaker Tazmi Noor.
In his adaptation, Tazmi has converted the names of the characters, places and the plot of the Greek tragedy to give it a sub-continental touch and make it suitable for the contemporary audience of the region. The storyline, however, remains the same.
The adapted play is set at a Himalayan terrain named Pragjotispur where Himadri has been declared the king in gratitude for freeing the innocent people of the land from the atrocities of the demon Sangramvi. The queen of the state Indrani, the widow of the former king Chandrashekher, marries the new king. The fate of Raja Himadri, then, follows the dreadful prediction of the blind seer. The king gouges his eyes upon unearthing of the unbearable truth that he himself, unknowingly, has killed his father Chandrashekhar and married his own mother.
Shobdo Natyacharcha Kendra’s play titled Tritio Ekjon is written by Samir Dasgupta and directed by Anata Hira.
The theme of the play revolves around what usually happens or may happen in urban, contemporary conjugal life, which is often full of conflicts. The play opens with the entrance of an apparently happily married couple. The husband is a professor and a careerist, whereas the wife looks after the house. The lonely wife feels neglected as she has abandoned her own career and dreams for her marriage.
The twist in the plot is introduced when the husband realises that his wife is not honest and has an extramarital affair. The coming of the third character, named Bibek (conscience), makes the story run with multiple possible endings.
One ending is like that of Shakespeare’s Othello where the husband kills his wife.
In the second ending the wife, like Nora of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, leaves the house to find her own direction and dream.
The third ending was that the husband realises his guilt and allows the scope where his wife can grow and actualise her dreams.
-With New Age input
