Playwright: Ujjwal Chattopadhyay

Director: Bratya Basu

Group: Naihati Bratyajon, 24 Paragana

Language: Bengali

Duration: 1 hr 30 mins

The Play

The central point of the play 21 Grams or Ekush Gram is an accident around which revolve three families and lives of a few individuals. The sequence of events spins simultaneously from the past to the present and back to the past. These circular motions embody individuals merged in emotions of love-affection, lust-violence, despair-dejection, and wide-ranging gives and takes. Under the same kiosk, into the varied complexities of life penetrate many heart pulsations lub-dub..lub-dub..lub-dub…….. A compelling and unbearable rhythm of lub-dub…. this is an endless tremor. Its harmonious impact signifies the mysterious beauty of life. Barely 21 grams lub-dub..lub-dub..lub-dub..lub-dub…

Director’s Note

Naihati Bratyajon was established with an aim to present films rich in creative and theatrical content on stage. For theatrical presentation, they had resolved to choose from films produced in Bengal. The first play staged in this design was Meghe Dhaka Tara. The play premiered at University Institute Hall on 2nd January, 2016. The premier show of the second production Ekush Gram is planned on 26th March 2017 at Mohit Moitra Mancha, Paikpara. This play is based on the second film of Oscar winning Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, titled 21 Grams. The essence of this theatrical production is to make the two islands of theatre and film to become mutually relevant in the great ocean of art.

The Director

Bratya Basu, is an accomplished theatre artist, a playwright and director. Basu launched his career as a dramatist and director with the play Ashaleen (1996), described by theatre critics as the first post-modernist Bengali play. His noted plays (as playwright, actor and director) thereafter include Aranyadeb, Shahar Yaar, Virus-M, Winkle-Twinkle, 17th July, Chatushkon and many more. Basu has bagged many awards and recognitions both in Theatre and Film. Some of them include Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival Award, Ritwik Ghatak Honorary Award, Kalakar Award, Shyamal Sen Memorial Award, Dishari Award, Satyen Mitra Award, Shilpayan Samman, Srestho Natya Nirman etc. Bratya Basu, is currently Hon’ble Cabinet Minister and in charge of the Ministry of Information Technology & Electronics for the state of West Bengal. He has created his own space in contemporary theatre by moving beyond its existing boundaries. He formed his own theatre group Bratyajon in 2008. The first theatrical production of Bratyajon was Ruddhasangeet (2009) which has so far staged more than a record 150 shows to packed houses.

The Playwright

Ujjwal Chattopadhyay is a professor of Economics and an eminent playwright of West Bengal who has been serving Bengali theatre for decades. Most of his plays have been produced by directors like Bibhas Chakraborty, Meghnad Bhattacharya, Bratya Basu, Soumitra Mitra, Kaushik Sen, Prokash Bhattacharya and others. Some of his remarkable plays are Akarik, Antaral, Bhrom, Antoni-Soudamini, Arabyorajani, Biley, Drohokal, Dhrubatar, Nati Kiranshasi etc. He has also adapted the works of Chekov, Tagore, Shakespeare and Kalidas.

The Group

We have formed Naihati Bratyajon by merging all the theatre groups of Naihati. On the suggestion offered by our respected playwright and director, Bratya Basu, we have decided to stage plays based on popular movies carrying social messages. Our first production, Meghe Dhaka Tara, is a well-known film of Ritwik Ghatak. We will produce several such film productions on stage in the future and present them to theatre lovers.

Cast & Credits

On Stage: Poulumi Basu, Arna Mukhopadhyay, Sumit Ray, Loknath Dey, Dyuti Halder, Partha Bhowmick, Prantik Chowdhury, Aritra Banerjee, Raktim Dutta, Partha Pratim Das, Subrata Biswas, Nantu Kundu, Mahuya Bhadra, Subham Sil, Soumadip Kundu, Ronit Paul, Rick Deb, Mou Mondal, Rupa Mazumdar, Sayni Ghosh, Shankar Dutta, Srijoni Adhikary

Light: Sudip Sanyal

Set design: Debasish Dutta

Set Making: D’Moy

Sound: Dishari Chakraborty

Sound Operator: Santonu Paul

Costume: Madhumita Dham

Make-up: Md Ali

Movement: Debkumar Pal

Logo Design: Inner Circle Advertising

Stills, Brochure & Publicity Design: Abhijit Nath

Production Assistance: Prithwish Rana

Production Control: Jitobrato Palit

Playwright: Ujjwal Chattopadhyay

Director: Bratya Basu

Playwright & Director: Anasuya Subasinghe

Group: Salt Theatre Company, Sri Lanka

Language: English

Duration: 2 hr 30 mins

The Play

Welcome to the extraordinary world of Kōlam! The past meets the present and strangely familiar stories unfold in a patchwork of bittersweet encounters. Lǣli Kōlama, the man bearing a plank of wood, crosses the ocean to arrive on foreign shores with the hope of becoming a deity. In the wake of neo-nationalist ethos, Diyasēna Kōlama presents himself as a self-appointed saviour, equipped with a master plan to outplay the evil forces threatening his race and religion. Weighed down by her children and their children, Attamma Kōlama endures the adored burdens and fears of the archetypal Sri Lankan grandmother. Vanda Kōlama, the praying mantis, whose palms meet in habitual genuflection, has found a method of survival in the many interpretations of the namaskāra. Gandhabba Kōlama wanders between death and rebirth, seeking justice for those who have been disappeared through the troublesome history of the Island. Lǣeli Kōlama returns to the arena, still hopeful of becoming a god. But urged by the Narrator, he has little choice but to take on the role of the Garā Demon responsible for ‘mopping up’ the arena and concluding the performance.

Director’s Note

Kōlam, once a popular secular Sinhalese dance-theatre tradition of Sri Lanka, was performed in the outdoors, incorporation a large repertoire of masks, traditional low-country dance, yak-bera percussion, song, satire, Buddhist cosmology, and the influence of exorcism rituals. Both didactic and entertaining in nature, the Kōlam practitioner was inspired by his social and political landscape in bringing narratives to life in the arena. My Sweet Rotten Heritance is a political satire that attempts to reimagine this moribund Kōlam practice beyond its ‘fixed’ repertoire, by introducing new masks and narratives familiar to the contemporary spectator. Inter lacing political, historical and mythological accounts, and reinterpreting them in today’s context, the play explores the perform ability of Kōlamas a ‘living’, ‘evolving’ performance practice.

The Director & Playwright

Anasuya Subasinghe is a Sri Lankan academic in performance studies, a playwright, theatre practitioner, and film actor. She has received the award for Best Female Performance at the National Festival of Theatre in Sri Lanka and has won several national awards as Upcoming Female Actor for her role in the international award-winning Sri Lankan film, Ho Gānā Pokuna (The Singing Pond).  Anasuya has worked in both the Sinhala and English language theatres of Sri Lanka over the past 20 years, and has interests ranging from masked theatre, physical theatre, solo performance, autobiographical performance and Sri Lankan traditional theatre and ritual performance. Anasuya completed her Doctoral degree in Performance Studies at Victoria University Melbourne Australia where she was awarded a Postgraduate Research Scholarship. She has since returned to her home country to continue her work as an academic and performance practitioner and is currently employed as a visiting lecturer at the University of the Visual and Performing Arts in Colombo.

The Group

Salt Theatre Company was established by playwright, director and actor Anasuya Subasinghe as an independent theatre ensemble that engages in practice as research. My Sweet Rotten Heritance, the debut theatrical Endeavour of the Company, was originally produced in 2017 as the performance component of Anasuya’s Doctoral Degree. Well received by a multicultural audience, Salt Theatre returned to Melbourne in July 2018 for two more successful performances of the play. Composed of an ensemble of young, dynamic performers, Salt Theatre aims to present theatrical works of high standard that are socially and politically incisive, creatively challenging, and most certainly entertaining.

CAST AND CREDITS

Narrator: Anasuya Subasinghe

Lǣli Kōlama: Jithendra Vidyapathy

Diyasēna Kōlama: Ishara Wickramasinghe

Attamma Kōlama: Stefan Thirimanne

Vanda Kōlama: Stefan Thirimanne

Gandhabba Kōlama : Dinupa Kodagoda

Musician: Nadika Weligodapola

Music: Nadika Weligodapola

Choreography: Jithendra Vidyapathy

Mask Design: Anasuya Subasinghe

Mask Illustrations: Trevor Stacpool, SujeewaWeerasinghe

Mask Design Development & Painting: Sirimal Sanjeewa Kumara, Sujeewa Weerasinghe

Mask Carving: Thuresh Manjula

Backdrop Art: Sirimal Sanjeewa Kumara

Costume Design: Dinushika Senevirathne

Puppet Mask Carving: Sumith Jayawarnana

Puppet Making: Tilaka Subasinghe

Set Design: Anasuya Subasinghe

Set Construction: Gamini Ranasinghe

Lights Design & Operation: Anuradha Mallawarachchi

Production Managers: Malith Hegoda, Sadhani Rajapakse

Playwright & Director: Anasuya Subasinghe

Playwright: William Shakespeare

Director: Bhaskar Boruah

Group: Replica, Jorhat

Language: Assamese

Duration: 1 hr 28 mins

The Play

Crownless Prince is the story of prince Hamlet whose father is murdered by his uncle, Claudius who, soon after the funeral marries his sister-in-law. Hamlet is unable to accept the sudden death of his father and the hurried re-marriage of his mother. The ghost of King Hamlet commands his son to avenge his death by killing his uncle. Hamlet affects madness and with the help of a troupe of players stages a play, the plot of which is told by the ghost. The performance finally leads to the death of the whole family.

Director’s Note

It is a common saying that as soon as one gets attached to Hamlet, he/she can’t evade it, as his way of seeing life changes after that. Same was the case with me. I got associated with Hamlet during one of my classes while I was studying at N.S.D. I played the role of Hamlet then and I don’t think his psychology ever left me. For me, there is no place for Hamlet and his emotions in the beautiful facade of the world that surrounds him. The revenge that prince Hamlet is called to wreak upon his uncle by his father’s spirit dispirited Hamlet. Hamlet’s situation can be traced to the untimely death of our political figures as well. When I started the work, it was meant to be a solo piece. But as I went along I realised that Hamlet cannot exist without the crisis of the world that he lives in, as each character brings out a different face of the crown prince. His ‘madness’ is as much due to external factors as it is due to his internal conflicts. These are the views regarding Hamlet which I have tried to present in front of you in this stylized piece.

The Director

Bhaskar Boruah is an upcoming playwright, director, and theatre trainer. He graduated from National School of Drama, New Delhi in 2015, with Specialization in Acting. He has directed many stage plays like Junakirkothare, Dhemalirkothare, Xastirxondhanat, Karnaittyadi, Monai, Tetontamuli, Bharmi, Ravan, Hamlet, Rjardeul, Kekoni, Oi…Who am I? etc. He established his group Joonak (a group of little stars) in 2008. He has worked with acclaimed theatre directors from India and abroad. As an actor, he has acted in 45 stage plays and participated in 18 National/International theatre festivals including Shakespeare’s International Theatre Festival held in China and Serbia, and Colombo International Theatre Festival in Sri Lanka.  

The Playwright

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright who is considered one of the greatest writers to ever use the English language. He is also the most famous playwright in the world, with his plays being translated in over 50 languages and performed across the globe for audiences of all ages.

The Group

Replica was established in 1997 and has taken part in various all India cultural activities. It has received appreciation for its street plays, musical plays, stage dramas, mono-acts, etc. It also organizes The North-East India Drama Festival, a 45 days Residential Drama Workshop and stages the workshop production for 30 days at a stretch.

Cast & Credits

Hamlet: Bhaskar Boruah

Ghost: Bhaskar Tamuly

Claudius: Nitu Gogoi

Gertrude: Neelakhi Gohain

Ophelia: Dorothy Bhardwaj

Polonius: Kaushik Hazarika

Horatio: Bijit Borgohain

Laertes: Himanshu Gogoi

Marcellus: Ajay Mech

Grave Digger : Debajit Bhuyan

Bernardo: Bijit Kumar Das

Players: Mitali Saikia, Nitu Gogoi, Ajay Mech, Bijit Kumar Das, Rosey Mudoi, Kaushik Hazarika

Light Design: Bharat Chutia

Set Design: Bhaskar Boruah

Assistant Set Designer: Shivam Saikia, Ajay Mech, Nitu Gogoi

Music Direction: Bhaskar Boruah, Raktutpol Bharadwaj

Costume Design: Bhaskar Boruah

Assistant Costume Designer: Apsara Khan, Mitali Saikia

Properties: All Team Members

Set Design: Bhaskar Boruah

Subtitles Projection: Sanjib Pathok

Assistant Set Designer: Bharat Chutia, Ajay Mech, Nitu Gogoi

Make-up: All Actors

Stage Setup, Co-Make-up & Wardrobe Stylist: Rupjyoti Mahanta, Satyam Kushwaha, Modhusmita Goswami

Movement Choreography: Bijit Kumar Das

Stage Manager: Nipen Bora

Team Leader & Secretary: Rupjyoti Mahanta

Playwright: William Shakespeare

Assamese Adaptation, Design & Direction: Bhaskar Boruah

Playwright: Siddheshwar Sen

Director: Babulal Deora

Group: Individual, Ujjain

Language: Malwi

Duration: 1 hr 30 mins

The Form

Maach is a folk theatre form of the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh. This form was initiated around 200-250 years ago by Guru Gopal Ji of Bhagsipura of Ujjain. Even today three major akhadas of this theatre form viz. Daulatganj Akhada of Ustad Kaluram Sharma, Jaisinghpura Akhada of Balmukund Ji, and Mali Pura Akhada of Ustad Radhakishan Ji are prevelant. Maach has more than 150 scripts/ manuscripts and 125 melodies sung on 5/7 different rhythms. The main musical instruments of Maach are Harmonium, Dhol and Sarangi. Maach is a musical theatre that begins 10 at night and runs till 8 in the morning. Traditionally Maach is performed by men only, but Ustad Kalu Ram Ji’s Gharana has always had female artists as well.

The Play

Raja Harishchandra denounced his kingdom and mortgaged his own, his wife’s and his sons’s life to repay his guru’s debt, and to preserve the Truth. Written by Siddheshwar Sen and directed by Maach guru Babulal Deora, this presentation Raja Harishchandra has been staged by the group in many festivals held in different cities like Jamshedpur Tatanagar, Jharkhand; All India Craft Festival, Shilpramam, Hyderabad (Telengana) and at Ankur Rangmanch & Pratibha Lok Kala.

The Director

Born on 11 October 1963 in village Nayakhe of Ujjain District, Babu Lal Deora, at the age of 15, participated in the stories of Lokarg and Tejaji Maharaj and decided to step into the field of Maach. He was inspired and trained in Maach of Malwa by Guru Shri Siddheshwar Ji Sen and elder brother Ratan Maharaj Lokesh Sen. His first performance was as a singer in the chorus. After the death of his guru he continued the tradition. Later he went to Chittor for a workshop with Hafiz Khan, where he was introduced to some more melodies of Maach associated with Turra Kalangi folk theatre. Since then he has constantly been staging and promoting this folk art.

Cast & Credits

Raja Harishchandra: Babulal Deora

Guri Vishwamitra: Sudhir Sankhla

Kalua: Mangilal Bhati

Pradhan Ji: Babu Bhati

Rani Tara: Visnu Chandel

Pharaasan: Sonu, Tikaram Bhaati, Teju Solanki

Harmonium: Mangilal Vaishnav

Dholak: Pappu Chauhan

Tek: Lakhan Deora, Madanlal Deora, Vinod Paanchal

Chela: Ravi Akodia, Kuldip Panwar

Playwright: Siddheshwar Sen

Director: Babulal Deora

Director: Koumarane Valavane

Group: Indianostrum Theatre, Pondicherry

Language: English

Duration: 1 hr 5 mins

The Play

Karuppu is a dance-drama representation of the movement of Purusha and Prakriti energies through the birth, destruction and rebirth of the universe. The separation of Purusha from Prakriti destroys the universe; but the destruction is not permanent as nothing is. Only in the powerful destruction of the world and all its constituent materials and forms, by Karuppu (Dark) energy, is the reunion of Consciousness and Nature possible, giving rebirth to all of existence. Karuppu depicts a universe absorbing all imbalances making itself a black hole from which rebirth of everything anew is possible.

Director’s Note

Karuppu, this is the black spot that we put on the cheek of a newborn. . .

Karuppu, is the nocturnal silhouette that will try to seize us at the corner of a deserted street. . .

Karuppu is the spirit that keeps the man alert. . .

Karuppu is the goddess Kali, the ultimate form of energy, the one needed to destroy everything. . .

Karuppu is also a world without God, without a creator, without the paternal guru omnipresent where the Man, alone in the face of his destiny, learns to tame the dark forces.

Karuppu is not evil but the darkness contained in him of whom he is wary, he conjures the hold through rituals. . .

Karuppu is the vision of a world born simply from the union between Pakriti (the feminine) and Purusha (the masculine). This union between energy and consciousness, dynamic of a whole universe is as fragile as the relationship between man and woman. . .

In the form of a dance-theatre we make and break the bonds that unite Purusha (the man) and Pakriti (the woman) through mythical characters including Iphigenia, Ophelia, Clytemnestra, Medea and Kali.

The Director

Koumarane Valavane, a Franco-Indian, who left for France in his early years for studies, started practicing theatre at a very young age. In the University of Marseille, he along with his friends created a cultural association which was called Centre Culturel de Luminy, and which made theatre its primary element. After completing his research in Theoretical Physics, he founded his own theatre company Natya. For 3 years he worked as an actor at Theatre du Soleil, the renowned theatre company in Paris, before returning to India in 2006. With the rich experience of contemporary theatre gained in France, Koumarane returned home with a decision to continue exploring theatre at home. His thought began to spread its roots when he met a few young people at Alliance Francaise de Madras. This small group connected by the passion to do theatre, decided to form a theatre group and created Indianostrum in 2007.

The Group

Indianostrum Théâtre was founded by Koumarane Valavane, a French-Indian director in the year 2007, along with few young actors who were ready to gamble their flourishing careers in conventional fields for their passion for theatre. Indianostrum’s core aim is to expand the role of modern theatre in the cultural life of the country, by developing new modern texts, finding the specificities of Indian modern theatre, exploring its relationship with traditional forms, and transcending political, social and historical divides.

Cast & Credits

On Stage: Abinaya Ganeshan, David Salamon P., Mani Bharathi G., Priyadarshini Chakravarty, Ruchi Raveendran, Santhosh kumar. C, Saranjith N. K., Vasanth Selvam

Music: Jean – Jacques Lemetre, ‘Requiem’ by Mozart, Tribal Oppari, Tibetan ritual music, ‘The rite of spring’ by Igor Stravinsky, ‘Therenody for the Victims of Hiroshima’ by Krzysztof Penderecki

Voice-Over: Kalieaswari Srinivasan (The Seagull by Anton Chekhov)

Light Design Execution: Baby Charles

Administration: Priti Bakalkar, Sudheesh K

Direction: Koumarane Valavane

Playwright: Sumbel Gaffarova

Director: Farid Bikchantaev

Group: Galiaskar Kamal Tatar National Academic Theatre, Russia

Language: Tatar

Duration: 1 hr 20 mins

The Play & Director’s Note

After the fall of the Iron Curtain and the collapse of the USSR, the peoples of the former autonomous republics started to look into the blank pages of their history. One of these sad topics for Tatars, the second largest nation of Russia, was the fate of the captured Second World War soldiers and officers who refused to cross over to the side of fascist Germany and passed all the hardships of Hitler’s concentration camps, and after the collapse of the Third Reich became prisoners of the Stalin’s GULAG. Those of them who were lucky enough to return home in the fifties only recently received the status of participants of the Second World War. However, there were some of them who, sensing a new arrest, did not return to their homeland and scattered all over the world…Naqip, the main character of the play, after the war, stayed in Canada by the will of fate and started his life with a clean slate. In a small town in the Canadian outback, he arranged a kind of a Tatar village, started growing potatoes and ….

The Director

Farid Bikchantaev was born in Kazaninin 1962. In 1991 he graduated from GITIS (Russian Institute of Theatre Arts) with a degree in Theatre Direction, a course run by Maria Knebeland Boris Golubosky. In 2002 he became the Artistic Director of Galiaskar Kamal Tatar National Academic Theatre. In 2011 Farid took on the role of head of the Republic of Tatarstan Theatre Union. In addition to his directing career, Farid has taught in the Kazan State Institute of Culture since 2002, first as the Head of the Acting Department, then as a Professor. Farid has also delivered two acting courses in the Kazan Theatre School.

He has received the Laureate of the Gabdulla Tukay State Prize of the Republic of Tatarstan. He was a nominee for the NationalTheatre Award ‘Golden Mask’ and is the winner of the XXII InternationalStanislavskyPrize ‘For the contribution to the Russian theatrical art development’. He is the Chairman of the Theatre Union of Tatarstan.

The Playwright

A prose writer, journalist and playwright Gaffarova Sumbel Gabdulahatovna graduated from the classical Tatar grammar school named after Sh. Mardzhani. Then she studied at Kazan State University (now KFU), Faculty of Tatar Philology, Literature and English. She has authored a collection of children’s fairy tales Long ago, recently …and a children’s novel A dream that will come true. She is a member of Kazan Opera Laboratory – Kazan Opera Lab. Sumbel collaborates with the youth creative organization Caleb. She writes in both Tatar and Russian languages.

The Group

Galiaskar Kamal Tatar National Academic Theatre was founded in 1906 and is the oldest national theatre in the Russian Federation. It is the winner of the national theatre award Golden Mask. The theatre is located in the heart of the city of Kazan, which is recognized as the ‘Third Capital of Russia. The repertoire of the Kamal Theatre harmoniously combines the classics of world literature and drama, and works of Tatar playwrights and contemporary authors. All performances are in the Tatar language, as is the tradition. A simultaneous interpretation of all the performances in English and Russian is also provided. Since 1998 the theatre, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of Russia and the Republic of Tatarstan, has held the International Theatre Festival of Turkic people ‘Nauruz’, the main theatre festival of the Turkic world. Since 2010 the same collaboration has held eponymous international theatrical and educational forums which consist of seminars, training sessions, and lectures by leading theatre professionals from around the world.

Cast & Credits

Naqip: Radik Bariev

Naqip in youth: Rail Shamsuarov

Joanna: Lyutsiya Bikchantaeva

Samuel, Sergeant: Minvali Gabdullin

Zeytuneh, Mariambikeh: Aigul Abasheva

Khairullah, Head of the Concentration Camp, Captive,Military in the Cafe: Ilnur Zakirov

Hismatulla: Almaz Sabirzyanov

Production Designe: Albert Nesterov

Light Designer: Taras Mikhalevsky

Managing Director of the Theatre: Ilfir Yakupov

Playwright: Sumbel Gaffarova

Musical Design & Direction: Farid Bikchantaev

Playwright: Jit Sarkar

Director: Samir Biswas

Group: Mangolik, Kolkata

Language: Bengali

Duration: 1 hr 50 min.

The Play

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was one of the prime leaders at the forefront of India’s fight for freedom from British rule. He was a leading architect, who eschewed violence in every form, of non-violent civil disobedience that would influence the world. When the protest at Chouri Choura against using British goods and attires, became violent Gandhi shouldered its responsibility and called for a cease of Non-co-operation Movement and Satyagraha and began five days fast subsequently. He was arrested and interned to the Sabarmati jail for six years on charges of instigating public through his anti-establishment literature. From the jail in South Africa Gandhi wrote on Satyagraha to spread the message of peaceful protests. Madeleine Slade, daughter of British Rear-Admiral Sir Edmond Slade, was an ardent admirer of his and was inspired enough to live in the ashram. Gandhi renamed her, Mirabehen. The British prime minister, Winston Churchill cast aspersions on BAPU’s attire referring him as “half-naked fakir”. Followers reacted but Bapu accepted it to describe the true condition of Indians under the British rule. He was left alone after wife Kasturba, his partner and fellow-fighter in the freedom struggle, passed away. We hereby try to recreate the essential relevance of Mahatma Gandhi’s vision for coming generations in, Bapu.

Director’s Note

The entire world is now a victim to intolerance which is a painful cause of concern for us. Our vast India is in panic by acts of violence. The warmth of father – son relationship is corroding and an icy coldness is spreading across the nation. We are meant for reviving the warmth of human values whereas factors of jealousy and brutality prevail. At this crucial juncture we refresh our collective memory by invoking an inspiring life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi also called, Bapu, as a reminder to our society. This Indian activist through his honesty, dedication and perseverance handled the non-violent movement and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world winning hearts of the common masses. This flash back is a tribute to our freedom fighters.

The Director

Born on 12th April, 1947 his career on stage started as child artist in Tagore’s play, Dakghar in the role of Amal. His fascination for drama and allied arts grew with age joining a theatre group in 1962. He started his group, Mangolik on 12th December, 1968. He has also worked with other major groups like Rangarup, Chetna, Samabeta Prayash etc. as an actor and director in last 50 years. He acted in the lead role in film, Manush Bhoot and the play Bapu.

He has received the Drama Academy of India’s Jyosthna Makha Das Smarak Samman and Lebedev Drama awards.

The Playwright

Jit Sarkar has consistently scripted several radio dramas, TV documentaries, telefilms, serials and films in Hindi and Bengali ever since his career as writer began in 1982.  Some of his acclaimed works are – Dayen (The Witch) and Sundari (Quest for Beauty) Hindi feature films selected in children’s film section of the 4th Kolkata Film Festival 1998 and Samporko in Bengali selected in the 9th Kolkata Film Festival 2003 under telefilm section.

The Group

Formed on 12th December, 1968 Mangolik, is one of the few groups that have managed to sustain their creativity in Bengali theatre. Its founder, veteran actor-director, Samir Biswas has devoted his entire life to acting and designing serious theatre. They do not gather performers for their own sake rather believe in doing responsible theatre for social change and harness new talents. It seeks encouragement and inspiration from the audience. It grooms members towards struggle that is an inherent nature of theatre. The group celebrated its golden jubilee last year only.

Cast & Credits

Bapu: Samir Biswas

Nathuram Godse: Shouvik Majumdar

Mahadev Desai: Soumya Biswas

Kasturba Gandhi: Upali Ghosh Bose

Madeleine Slade (Mirabehn): Debjani Mukherjee

Harilal: Debashish Ganguly

Md. Ali Jinnah: Samiran Mukhopadhyay

Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel: Ujjal Biswas

Jawaharlal Nehru: Partho Roy Chowdhury

Lakhan: Nanigopal Pramanik

Manu Gandhi: Sanchita Chowdhury

Abha Chatterjee: Satabdi Bose

Nayar: Sudip Chatterjee

Rioters, Revolutionaries & Ashramwasi: Murari Chakraborty, Adrija Basu, Tanish Chatterjee, Priyotosh Dhar, Khokan, Biswas, Ashim Bose, Sanatan Hari

Lights: Bablu Sarkar

Music: Shanto Adhikary

Make Up: Ramen Chakraborty

Set: Swapan Das

Watch The Director’s Meet for the play

Playwright & Director: Probir Guha

Group: Alternative Living Theatre, Kolkata

Language: Bengali

Duration: 2 hr 10 mins

The Play

On the centenary year of Adwaita Mullaburman, we decided to prepare a play based on his momentous novel, Titas Ekti Nadir Naam. The play talks about fishermen societies residing on the banks of Titas in Bangladesh. The play talks about Titas’s change throughout years and its effect on the socio-economic structure of societies around. The love and loss of the main characters is the central attraction of this play. The play enters into climax when the fishermen society finds out that Titas is drying up. What will the fishermen do now? How will they survive? How does it really feel to lose the only means of life? How does it feels to lose a river?

Director’s Note

The plan of making Titas Ekti Nadir Naam was there since my college days. The novel had a great influence on me, and I always wanted to express those elements with my language, my way of understanding. The first attempt at this play was in Tripura some years ago. Then in 2015, I directed this play but due to some unexpected situation we could not work with the play anymore, but the urge stayed. In 2017 I remade, rearranged, and rejuvenated the play in my style under the banner of my theatre group Alternative Living Theatre. Hope my attempt at this classic piece will be acceptable to the audience.

The Director & Playwright

Born on 5th May, 1947, acclaimed playwright and director Probir Guha embarked on his career as a street theatre activist after graduation from Calcutta University. Initially he began working in Kolkata but soon becoming disillusioned with elitism, he established his own company, the Living Theatre, in 1977 at Khardaha. In 1991, Living Theatre was renamed as Alternative Living Theatre. From then till now he has been working as a writer-director of this group of rural-urban thought. He has worked with many renowned directors of theatre and dance worldwide. He is also a lecturer and teacher at several theatre schools and universities. Guha has been a common name among Alternative Theatre activists. He has received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for his excellence, along with other felicitations and awards for his contribution in alternative theatre practice.

The Group

Living Theatre was formed by Mr. Probir Guha in 1977 at Khardaha, a suburb in West Bengal. Later in 1990 it was renamed and re-registered as Alternative Living Theatre. It was formed with an earnest resolution to break the clichéd rules of theatre. It was determined that it would not merely entertain people, but will work towards waking them, as it believes that not just entertainment but theatre can also be the voice of the grass-root people. It dealt with difficulties of marginal people so instead of heading for the city it started penetrating into the interior of the villages and has performed in a small class room for ten years. Hence it has discarded monotonous grammatical acting and has experimented and evolved a new aesthetics of theatre where physicality is the language. Later on, it built its residential workshop and rehearsal space named Akhara at Madhyamgram, where theatre lovers from all over the world come to learn.

Cast & Credits

On Stage: Aftar Ali, Bikash Bose, Arkajyoti Ganguly, Avijit Biswas, Dhiman Bhattacharya, Pritam Chakraborty, Debobrata Banerjee, Raja Biswas, Santanu Sarkar, Chirantan Chakraborty, Sujoy Chakraborty, Anasua Das, Mousumi Sengupta, Anushka Sen, Ria Das, Ankita Ghosh, Abheepsha Ghosh, Sylvia Sharma Bhattacharya, Swagata Sen

Live Musicians: Subhadeep Guha, Chakrapani Dev, Madhuparna Debnath, Sushruta Goswami

Art & Set Designer: Arpita Burman

Costume Designer: Arpita Burman

Light Designer: Sadhan Parui

Light Execution: Samar Parui

Music Designer: Subhadeep Guha

Choreography: Sanchaita Basu

Production Controller: Shilpi Sarkar

Novelist: Adwita Mullabarman

Script & Direction: Probir Guha

Playwright: Sophocles

Director: Ashim Das

Group: Fame School of Dance, Drama & Music, Bangladesh

Language: Bengali

Duration: 1 hr 20 mins

The Play

The abode of Cadmus was burnt to ashes because of the wrath of the Gods. After a long struggle Cadmus and his later posterity came to power one after another. At one point Oedipus came to the throne of Thebes. But predestined suffering dragged him to the brink of the formidable sin, and execution of the Oracle came true without his prior-knowledge. The Oracle said that he was destined one day to kill his father and to become his own mother’s husband. At the end of the play, after the truth finally comes to the light, Jocasta hangs herself, and Oedipus, horrified at his patricide and incest, precedes to gouge out his own eyes in despair. Then on an empty space the Chorus repeats the common Greek maxim, that ‘no man should be considered fortunate until he is dead’.

Director’s Note

Staging the Theban play, King Oedipus, the first and the best one of the Trilogy, of the great master playwright Sophocles was a challenge for me. I read Oedipus and other plays more than a 100 times. In every read I was thrilled, mesmerized and spell-bound by the knitting of plots and use of the riddles, and the power of the unwritten. References to eyesight and vision, both literal and metaphorical, are very frequent in all three plays of the trilogy. Quite often, the image of clear vision is used as a metaphor for knowledge and insight.

The Director

A graduate from National school of Drama, Ashim Das is the Director of Fame School of Dance, Drama & Music, Chittagong, Bangladesh. He is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Dramatics, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Has directed and designed more than 80 plays. He has adapted a number of classics and written some plays for children. Ashim has conducted several workshops on acting and direction, organized by Bangladesh Group Theater Federation and others. He has traveled to UK and France on the invitation of Human Rights Forum, UK, and Marie de Paris. He received the Zakaria Smriti Padok and the best director award for the play The Madwoman of Chaillot in International French Drama Festival, Dhaka.

The Playwright

Sophocles (496-406 B.C.) born in Colonus, not far from Athens, was one of the best dramatists in his age. Sophocles tragedies gained recognition as among the best dramas written at a time when competition was at its highest. The fact that his works are studied today, approximately 2,400 years after they were written is a testament to the power of his words and the impact that his stories have on current culture.

The Group

Fame School of Dance, Drama & Music was established in 1998 at Chittagong. In addition to other courses, it provides a year-long theatre appreciation course in acting and design, and a short course on acting, inspired by the teaching methodology of NSD. Some of the plays staged by the group include Antigone, Catastrophe, All That Fall, The Leader, The Lesson, A Trilogy (Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus & Antigone), Raktakarabi, George Dandin, The Mad Woman of Chaillot, etc.

Cast & Credits

Oedipus: Mubidur Rahman Sujat

Jocasta: Ashrafa Hossain

Creon: Dipta Chakraborty

Tiresias: Kamal Barua

Boy leading Tiresias: Anwesha Das

Priest, Messenger: Hasibul Alam

Shepherd: Kamal Barua

Attendant: Bappi Sikder

Guard: Md. Jahed Ali

Little Ismene & Antigone: Titly Biswas & Anwesha Das

Chorus of Theban Elders: Poly Chowdhury Boby, Utpal Dasgupta, Bappi Sikder, Khadijatul Kubra Rishika, Sabiha Binte Jashim, Syful Sarder, Md Farhadul Abedin, Umme Kulsum Farhana, Md. Jahed Ali, Md. Farhad Hossain, Poly Chowdhry, Regan Barua

Citizens of Thebes: Boby, Utpal, Hasib, Bappi, Ashrafa, Rishika, Sabiha, Syful, Farhad, Jahed, Farhana, Pappu, Poly, Regan, Anwesha & Titly.

Music, Light, Costume & Set Design: Ashim Das

Choreography: Tilottoma Sengupta

Music Control: Mohammed Rukan Uddin

Props Making: Amlan Barua

Mask Making : Showkat Ali

Technical Assistant: Ali Afsar Bhuiyan

Make-up: Shahenoor Sarwar

Set Making: Abdul Malek

FOH: Fameans

Production Manager: Showmen Rudra

Playwright: Tripurari Sharma

Director: Teekam Joshi

Group: Individual,Delhi

Language: Hindi

Duration: 1 hr 35 mins

The Play

Shifa is based on HIV+ people talking about the positivity of life, and about searching within oneself to find a new way of life. It is a play within a play where three real characters share their life experiences with the audience, not for consolation but about social stigma, discrimination, empowerment, acceptance and primarily, healing.

Director’s Note

One needs an inspiration for doing things, and I had several for doing this play. The first reason was Shri Ravi Nagar Ji, and the second was the need to fight against odds like illness, loneliness, stigma and discrimination that one sees and feels all around in society. Theatre can be inspiring, entertaining, and a platform for sharing. But sharing needs courage, and this play gives you that courage, to talk about those deeper experiences which you generally don’t and can’t share. This play is like opening a window on those subjects about which society has many reservations. I would like to convey my humble thanks to Tripurari Sharma Ji who gave me the permission to do it.

The Director

Teekam Joshi did P.G. diploma in Dramatic Arts from National School of Drama in 2001. He has received many awards including SangeetNatakAkadmiBismillah Khan YuvaPuruskar, Nat Samrat, IftekharAkadmi Award, and State Youth Festival Award. He has worked with the National School of Drama Repertory Co. and has been anexpert faculty for NSD extension program;visiting faculty at NSD for acting, voice and speech;visiting faculty at NSD Sikkim Centre,Gangtok for acting;Actor (consultant) Kingdom of Dreams;Associate and Assistant Director for NSD students productions;Associate Director of some NSD repertory productions;expert faculty for communication skills in different private universities;Executive Director of Aaj Theatre company(founded by BhanuBharti);Artistic Director of Unicorn Actor’s Studio;and Artistic Director of Flying Feather’s Art Association. He has participated in many national and international festivals.Teekam has worked with eminent theatre personalities like HabibTanvir, B.V.Karanth, Mohan Maharishi, M.K.Raina, BansiKaul, BhanuBharti, AnuradhaKapur, Kirti Jain,Ramgopal Bajaj,Robin Das, Tripurari Sharma, Rita Ganguly,D.R.Ankur, KavalamNarayan Panniker, John RusselBrown, WamanKendre, Prasanna, Kumar Verma, AlokChatterji, Sanjay Upadhyay, Raghunandan, K.S.Rajendran, Suresh Sharma, Bapi Bose, Ashok SagarBhagatetc.

The Playwright

Tripurari Sharma completed her diploma in direction from National School of Drama in 1979. She is a playwright, translator and director of repute. She has written and directed various plays for groups and institutions all over India. She has conducted workshops all over India and abroad. She has also written scripts of critically acclaimed films like Mirch Masala and HazarChaurasi Ki Maa. She has been honoured with the Sanskriti award and SangeetNatakAkademi award. Ms. Sharma retired as Professor of Acting fromNational School of Drama.

Cast & Credits

Sanjeev: Teekam Joshi

Chhaya: Nalini R Joshi / Nidhi Mishra

Barkha: PriyadarshiniPooja / ShradhaVasdev

Vinay: Manish Karnatak / Vaibhav Raj

Nani: GauriDewal / MuskanDua

Purush: Shaurya Shankar

Stage Manager: Harshvardhan / RajatDahiya

Reporter: MuskanDua / GauriDewal

Doctor: Akshay Sharma

Prof. Ganapati: AniruddhSagar

Students: Harshvardhan, Rajat, Akshay, Muskan, Shradha, Pooja

Child Artist: Nandini R Joshi , Lucky Lakshya

Group Actors: Harshvardhan, Rajat, Akshay, Akash, Muskan,Shradha, Nidhi, Nalini,     Praveen Parashar, Nirbhay Jain, Vaibhav Raj, Nikhil Singh Bhatti

Music: LateShri Ravi Nagar

Light Design: SoutiChakraborty

Set Design: Rajesh Singh

Sound Design: Sandy Singh

Poster Image: Indira Tiwari

Poster, Brochure & Video: Happy Ranjit

Choreography: HarshitKhatana

Sculpture: AniruddhSagar

Property: Sachin Shrivastav

Production Manager: GauriDewal

Production Assistant: Vaibhav

Sound Operation: ShubhamPaliwal