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| Goutam Ghose, Satya Bandyopadhyay and Sova Sen at the Greenwood Park Theatre Festival. Picture by Amit Datta |
?It is now 8.35 pm and we will need another 15 minutes to get started, so the play will roughly continue beyond 11 pm. It is beginning to rain outside and it may be more practical to do excerpts than play the original version. But we leave it to your discretion?? Several voices responded to this announcement at GD Birla Sabhagar, most calling for an abridged version but quite a few also asking for the complete show. It was the penultimate day (October 28) of the Greenwood Park Theatre Festival, Sayak?s Daybaddha had just concluded and now it was Ajantrik?s turn to present Pratham Path.
It is true that by the time the play started at 9 pm the crowd had dwindled, but among those who stayed back were eager kids and aged people who waited till the curtains came down. This, like the other five days of the festival, only served to underline the lasting appeal of theatre.
Bengal Shrachi Housing Development Limited has obviously chosen the perfect means to promote a brand image and ?culturally bind people from different walks of life?. As Rahul Todi, managing director, Bengal Shrachi, said: ?The turnout has been encouraging on all days and since Greenwood Park has an open-air theatre facility, people from New Town and the fringes have also come over.?
This was the fourth such annual festival and the focus this time was on theatre from the districts. Dakshiner Baranda from Kakdweep presented Mohit Chattopadhyay?s Kaal Ba Parshu directed by Soumit Basu, while Kompass from Coochbehar presented Dewan Gajir Kissa (an adaptation from Bertolt Brecht) directed by Debabrata Acharya.
Ritwik from Behrampore presented an original play against segregation called Bharat Puran, written and directed by Goutam Roy Choudhury. A dramatised version of Bhisam Sahni?s Tamas was presented by Shilpayan from North 24-Parganas. Howrah?s Abhinay presented Swapner Shima, dramatised and directed by Saumyendu Ghosh. Dana, another original play by Kaushik Chatterjee, was presented by Sanskritik of Shantipur, Nadia.
An expert jury, this time headed by filmmaker Goutam Ghose, evaluated the presentations. While noted filmmaker Basu Chatterjee gave away the Bijon Bhattacharya Smriti Puroshkar (best production and district award) to Sanskritik, theatre personality Sova Sen conferred the Utpal Dutt Samman (lifetime achievement award) on veteran stage actor Satya Bandyopadhyay. Sayak bagged the Tripti Mitra Smriti Puroskhkar for Saanjhbela.
?This year?s festival showcased the districts because there are so many groups we rarely get to see. Later, maybe in a year or two, we intend to extend the parameters further and make this a national event with groups coming in from other states,? said Todi.
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| A moment from Spandan IPTA?s Ishtishadi ? The Suicide Squad. Picture by Aranya Sen |
Spandan Indian Peoples? Theatre Association (IPTA) staged the inaugural show of its latest production Ishtishadi ? The Suicide Squad at Rabindra Sadan on Monday evening. Written and directed by Sangram Guha, The Suicide Squad is a dark play about a woman fighting against the bureaucracy to expose army officers with vested interests.
The protagonist is a real-life character Dona Bedi, a lawyer who died under mysterious circumstances in Delhi Police custody while trying to provide legal protection to a woman linked with the al Qaeda and 9/11. ?It wasn?t easy to source material as gathering information on defence-related matters is very critical. I had to piece together several news reports related to such issues that were published in national dailies,? says Guha, who has been working on the project for the past three-and-a-half months. The production featured a 35-member cast.
The show was attended by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, writer Sunil Gangopadhyay and ex chief of naval staff admiral Vishnu Bhagat.
