A still from Mrityur Daath Chhaa and (right) Diganta Kalita in Wheelchair

An aged mother suffers from the agony of losing six of her sons. There are suggestions that social conflict — insurgency and land dispute among others — is the cause of these deaths. Each death is a massive blow to the old lady and the last one, the death of Padma, is simply unbearable.

Padma’s death causes inexplicable trauma to the old lady and her two daughters. Time stands still for all three. But at a time when both the young girls feel that their world has been shattered, the old lady finds a rare mental strength to live life amid the deaths, destruction, trauma and agony — because “life goes on as usual”.

This in brief is the outline of the Assamese adaptation of J.M. Synge’s acclaimed play The Riders to the Storm staged recently at Rabindra Bhavan by artistes of the amateur Tronge Jirsong theatre. The play, Mrityur Daath Chhaa, was well adapted by its director Robijit Gogoi in the backdrop of Assam.

The play deserves accolades because of three reasons — the use of music, light and sound design. The stage was occupied by three main characters from the beginning to the end and only by proper utilisation of these three elements — light, music and sound — did the director bring about changes in mood, essence and temperament of the storyline and the characters, although the orchestration of the song was a bit too loud.

On the acting front, seasoned actress Pakiza Begum failed to attain the desired heights. Jolly Bhattacharyyaa too was uneasy at certain crucial moments, although Monimala Das left an impression.

Wheelchair

Purbaranga is a familiar name among the amateur theatre fraternity of Assam for its committed efforts to promote a healthy theatre movement in the state since 1992. The troupe has even earned rare reviews for a number of theatre productions in New Delhi and Calcutta. The latest production of Purbaranga, Wheelchair, staged recently at the KRB hall in Cotton College, was designed as a monologue — a style not very often seen in Assam. But while appreciating such experimental efforts conducted with so many limitations in amateur theatre arena, one does not find it easy to term Wheelchair a completely successful product.

First of all, the storyline in the play hardly says anything new. The development in the fiction seems obvious all the time. The dialogues are also not very different from the conventional pattern. Besides, they have not been composed well.

On the acting front, Himangsu Prasad remained unconvincing throughout the one-hour performance. Neither his body language nor dialogue delivery was appreciable. Even the use of music could not help overcome those drawbacks. But if this is just a beginning of the revival of a unique style of third theatre, Purbaranga will go a long way.

Rong Sarmah