Collegians usually earn their theatre spurs by interpreting existing plays – as in the 11th national Atelier Campus Theatre Festival and the latest production by Dramatically Correct, though all of these stopped short of the 60-minute barrier, which meant that they didn’t really test their abilities to the fullest.
Aneek’s 21st Ganga Jamuna Natya Utsab showcased Bangladeshi theatre unprecedentedly, inviting six troupes from across the country. More than the numbers, the unconventional content merits praise, as many as four plays dealing with various Bangladeshi minorities, in a strong message that their theatre defends plurality. The most unusual, Brātya
Rangakarmee is another of the handful of city groups to have developed its own little theatre instead of depending solely on the very few regular auditoriums and complaining about their paucity as well as unavailability. Many more groups should explore these possibilities of establishing a pārā theatre culture in Kolkata
Non-resident Bengali theatre has come of age over the last few years, some progressive troupes having departed from the amateur staple of frivolous entertainment to examine grave themes and older plays worth reviving. Two teams that visit the city regularly exhibited this trend at recent festivals, both coincidentally presenting a
Nandikar’s 35th National Festival included three new plays from outside Kolkata. Of them, Māyā Megh (National School of Drama, Sikkim Centre) evinced most interest, translating into Nepali the director Tripurari Sharma’s dramatization of a Gond folktale. Yama’s couriers deliver the message of imminent death to a wife whose husband doesn’t
