PARABOLA SIR | NITANTA BYAKTIGATA
Narayan Sanyal’s books have powered two new dramatizations, both by playwrights with a serious bent, befitting Sanyal’s deeper (as opposed to popular) writing. Spectators who bemoan an absence of inspiring
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RAVAN RELOADED | CHAKRANTA
The most phenomenal designers of present-day non-proscenium theatre in Kolkata both significantly come from outside the city: Debasish Ray in Khardah and Suvojit Bandopadhyay in Dankuni. I say this because
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HAMLET
It pleased me no end to discover the work of the young Anil Alessandro, who spends half the year with his father (Abani Biswas)’s group Theatre House near Santiniketan, and
DASTAN-E-KARN AZ MAHABHARATA
Mahmood Farooqui from Delhi made a welcome return to Kolkata after over a decade, at the invitation of Kolkata Centre for Creativity, to present his Dastangoi Collective’s Dastan-e-Karn az Mahabharata.
BINODINI OPERA | AJKER SHAJAHAN
Among festival favourites over the past year, I have not yet reviewed Angik’s Binodini Opera and Mukhomukhi’s Ājker Shājāhān. Both respect their sources, but we need to look at them
JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN
In perhaps the first visit by a Finnish theatre troupe to Kolkata, the trio of Essi Rossi (director), Johannes Holopainen (actor) and Pauli Riikonen (designer) honoured our city with the
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JOGIYA RAG | MOH
The 13th edition of Little Thespian’s National Theatre Festival, now named Jashn-e-Azhar, brought participating groups from Mumbai, Delhi, Varanasi and Ujjain. Tripurari Sharma’s Rup Arup under Unicorn (Delhi) had visited
JANMANTAR | FIVE GRAINS OF RICE
Author-director Sudipta Bhawmik has earned a respected position in Bengali theatre circles for his original plays, invariably thought-provoking and often innovatively constructed. On Janmāntar, which his New Jersey group ECTA
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AMI PLUTO | KHOKKAS
Bringing together young and older actors to comment on global issues, using sources from the West, two Bengali groups have mounted large-scale, even spectacular, productions. The first, Beadon Street Subham,
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SGT PEPPER GETS BACK! | THE SOUND OF MUSIC
What a joy to watch the stars of the future becoming starstruck by the magic of the stage and by the wondrous sensation of seeing a live audience in front
HAMLET | JULIUS CAESAR 2.0
Thanks to Sayak’s golden jubilee festival, I got a ringside view of one of Bengali theatre’s present blockbusters, Swapna-sandhani’s Hamlet. Unlike most directors today, Koushik Sen approaches it with singular
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SAKHARAM BINDER | KAMALA
Sayak reached their golden jubilee this year, an achievement worth lauding because few groups of their vintage have attained this landmark. The managerial abilities of director Meghnad Bhattacharya, one of