Actors enactVirangana at Kalidas Rangalaya in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Feb. 20: History evokes — for most — memories of forgettable dates and boring classes in school. But history coming alive on stage can be a very exciting experience.

In an attempt to refresh the memory of the capital’s residents about their history, the curtains were raised today at the weeklong All India Historical Dramatic Festival, 2011, at Kalidas Rangalaya.

The festival will pay tribute to Chaturbhuj, the father of Hindi theatre in Bihar. Eight plays written by the late thespian — Virangana, Yahudi ki ladki, Karn, Baba Vishu Raut, Mati ki kasam, Sita ka Vanbas, Kunwar Singh and Hickey Saheber Gazette (the only Bengali play at the festival) — would be enacted.

Virangana — based on incidents from the life of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi — was enacted today.

“People are gradually forgetting about the glorious history of our country. The purpose of this theatre festival is to remind them of our past,” said Suman Kumar, one of the organisers.

Suman, the secretary of Kala Jagran and founder member of Magadh Artist Team, also said: “Earlier, the festival used to be held for five days only. But now, the audience will be treated to seven days of theatre.”

An all-female cast — comprising 35 girls aged between 12 and 15 — enacted the verse drama. Suman Patel played the lead role, Anshika Roy played Manu and Shriya Roy donned the cap of Gangadhar, Laxmibai’s husba- nd. Shambhavi and Abhilasha seasoned the show as narrators of the play. Raju Mishra’s musical score explored alacrity and pathos in equal measure. Yamini directed the play.

“Chaturbhuj founded Magadh Artist Team at Bakhtiyarpur in 1945 on the model of Parsi theatres that were very popular at the time. Once Prithviraj Kapoor — himself a product of Parsi theatre — came down to Bakhtiyarpur to see Chaturbhuj perform,” said Ajit Ganguly, the director of Bihar Institute of Drama.

Ganguly, who has been a co-actor of Chaturbhuj, said: “He moved to Patna after he got a job in All India Radio in 1950. His group also came here with him and they stared putting up Hindi plays. Before that only English and Bengali plays used to be performed here.

“He was a very different kind of a person. He took great care of his appearance and always wore formals. He was also a very serious artiste, always punctual, humble and soft-spoken,” said Ganguly, reminiscing his mentor.