Sridharpur is a remote village in South 24-Parganas. It is 32 kilometres from Raidighi, which is itself a mofussil town 80 kilometres south of Calcutta. On May 8, we — drama scholars at the Purba Paschim Theatre in Calcutta — in association with Mukti, a non-profit organisation based at Sridharpur, staged the play Behula Ekhon. The play was a contemporary interpretation of the Behula-Lakhindar folktale of Bengal, focusing on local superstitious beliefs regarding snakebite and the menace of human trafficking, which is rampant in the area.
Before staging the play in the village that has been frequently devastated by cyclone and flood, we participated in a 10-day workshop there. We interacted with our co-actors — fisherfolk, marginal farmers, labourers, honey and shrimp collectors — and learnt basic life-skills and resilience against the disaster of climate change.
The stage was set up in an open space beside the Mani river. Local elements were used to design the stage. Hundreds of villagers enjoyed the play, which was loaded with social messages and folk elements. Soumitra Mitra, director of Behula Ekhon, said, “I was quite impressed by local talents who acted impeccably alongside seasoned actors.”
Sanjay Chakraborty,
Purba Paschim theatre group, Calcutta
All the world’s a stage
The department of English at Maulana Azad College in Calcutta, commemorated the 461st birth anniversary of William Shakespeare with a vibrant celebration that re-imagined him in the present context. It began with a welcome address by Niranjan Goswami, who is head of the postgraduate department of English.
Goswami highlighted Shakespeare’s enduring relevance.
Krishnendu Dutta, principal of the college, emphasised the Bard’s influence on global literature and human thought.
Dutta said the works of Shakespeare are not confined to the literary world alone but belong to all of humanity, even to mathematicians. Being a man of numbers, Dutta interpreted Shakespeare from a mathematical perspective.
Both undergraduate and postgraduate students presented well-researched papers with titles such as “The Timeless Bard of Literature”, “Shakespeare and Humanism” and “The Human Conscious: An exploration of ambition, fate, love in Shakespeare’s works”. The programme featured recitations from Shakespeare’s Sonnets — Nos. 18, 29, 38, and 104 — and a video tribute.
There was also a captivating audio drama coordinated by Saranya Mukhopadhyay and titled The Betrayal of the King: A Tragedy in Five Acts. The script was written by the students and featured characters from Shakespeare’s plays. The students conceived of a brave new world where Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear and Romeo and Juliet all co-exist.
Bilingual writer and translator Parimal Bhattacharya explained why this day is recognised as World Book and Copyright Day. The event closed with a vote of thanks by Nilanjana Chatterjee.
Chandrima Chakraborty and Trisha Saha
Maulana Azad College, Calcutta
