THE BELLE OF AMHERST | SIMPLY SHAKESPEARE
Kolkata saw two solo shows in English on the work of famous authors, both underscoring the need for variety in performance to engage spectators of this genre. Kathleen Mulligan, an
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DUJO KABIR | VYAKTIGAT | AI LADKI
Little Thespian’s national theatre festival, renamed Jashn-e-Azhar to memorialize Azhar Alam, featured in Hindi three renowned north Indian writers on its first three days. Vivechana Rangmandal (Jabalpur) presented Dujo Kabir
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BHORER BARANDA | TYPIST
Two-handers made quite a comeback in Bengali theatre after the pandemic owing to their comparative logistical ease of rehearsal and management. Thus, we have had Kathakriti’s Nayan Kabirer Pālā, Anya
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SHER AFGAN | HAYABADAN
Sansriti has reached a major milestone, their thirtieth anniversary. It seems just the other day that I criticized some of their early productions, but under founder-director Debesh Chattopadhyay they have
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GHARE BAIRE CHIRIYAKHANA
Ganakrishti’s recent fascination with such icons of absurdism as Beckett and Albee manifests in a wonderful new venture on Ghare Bāire Chiriyākhānā, a scrupulously faithful adaptation by Amitava Dutta of
NUR JAHAN
After Nil-darpan inaugurated Banga Natya Samhati’s celebrations of the founding of Bengali professional theatre, Dwijendra Lal Roy’s Nur Jāhān (1908) became the second play to be revived for the year-long
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AGUN | SAMPARKA
As a relatively new and small group, Baghajatin Alaap have gone from strength to strength on successive productions. Their latest, Āgun, commemorates the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971—a subject on
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AMI JAGADISH | SHIKHANDI
ECTA (New Jersey)’s winter tour of Bengal this year brought two new plays by Sudipta Bhawmik. Āmi Jagadish has a premise very unusual for Bengali theatre: inspired by J. C.
CHAITANYA BIMANGAL | TIKITO KA SANGRAHA
Two productions from outside Kolkata featured at Nandikar’s 39th Theatre Festival. Nadiya Natya’s Chaitanya Bimangal comes from the pen of senior playwright Chandan Sen, who has composed many biodramas of
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URANTA TARADER CHHAYA | BHABISHYATER SMRITI
Debasish Ray, who prefers to be known only by his first name, no doubt self-effacingly conscious of its commonness in Bengali nomenclature, has become the most prolific Bengali dramatist-director, sought
BARNA-BIPARJAY | MRITYUR MARPYANCH | MACBETH
The five-day annual Intimate Theatre Festival hosted by and at Proscenium’s Art Centre produced some intriguing political commentary. Of the two longer works, about an hour each, Spandan People’s Theatre’s
VODKA & NO TONIC
Like so many troupes, Primetime Theatre Company faced total shutdown of activities during the pandemic years but coped by rehearsing monologues, which allow artists near-social isolation. Director Lillete Dubey found