Reviews

IT HAPPENED IN KHATIJA’S VILLAGE

My 50-year-old connection with The Red Curtain has led me to associate their productions with scrupulous rigour, a combination of artistic dedication and disciplined teamwork that provided a model for

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Reviews

BYAPIKA BIDAY | MANMAYI GIRLS SCHOOL

Natya Samhati’s celebration of the sesquicentennial of Bengali professional theatre moved into the second quarter of the 20th century with two romantic-comedy hits from the 1920s and 1930s. They memorialized

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HARANER NAT-JAMAI | GHARE BAIRE

Two directors have revived their old dramatizations from Bengali fiction due to renewed political relevance. Arun Mukherjee first took up Manik Bandyopadhyay’s short story “Hārāner Nāt-jāmāi”, on the Tebhaga Movement,

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VISARJAN | KOI AUR RASTA

Little Thespian’s last two productions place wronged wives centrestage. In Visarjan, dramatized by Uma Jhunjhunwala from Premchand’s story “Suhāg kā Shav”, Subhadra encourages her husband to accept a scholarship to

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WHAT HAPPENED?

The pandemic led to much artistic soul-searching, especially in forms like theatre dependent on collective social interaction. Forced to isolate, some dramatists and directors addressed the unprecedented situation in new

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Reviews

POSTMASTER | JYAJAMASHAI

The minuscule Tripti Mitra Natyagriha has become a go-to site for small-scale and experimental Bengali theatre that flowers in close quarters rather than on the proscenium stage. Two productions there

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Reviews

2034 | IRABAN GATHA

Bengali groups from outside Kolkata find it very difficult to book halls in the city. Yet, as my reviews make it a point to prove, much good work originates there,

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Reviews

SWAHA | RAM UDHAO

Continuing to combat religious oppression of the underprivileged, Bengali theatre fights relentlessly against exploitation in all its forms. In narrowing the focus to violence against women in rural areas, two

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APURBBA SATI | JAMIDAR DARPAN

One positive outcome of Banga Natya Samhati’s festival celebrating 150 years of Bengali professional theatre is the rediscovery of obscure texts that nobody has staged in a long, long time.

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