Khelaghor

Director's Note

Henrick Ibsen is very popular and famous in the group theatre circle of Bengal. He is considered to be a social reformer and naturalist playwright by the Bengali intelligentsia. Theatre lovers of Bengal developed interest on Ibsen after viewing ‘Dashachakra’ and ‘Putul Khela’ of Sambhu Mitra and ‘Bedehi’ of Ajitesh Bandyopadhayay. We team Prachyo are presently enthusiastic on Ibsen – ‘A DOLLS HOUSE’.

A Bengali version of some done by my favourite playwright Ratan Kumar Das is our next production. One may ask – Why such an old play? In fact me too had the confusion, why this play? Are we failing to procure something from our surroundings of modern times? Or are we lacking the guts of telling today’s talk? And that is why we turn to the archive.

In the field of art and literature this play of Ibsen has attained the highest magnitude of eternity. It imbibes the crisis of mankind either collectively or severally that they confront throughout the evolution of society and civilisation. At the passage of time external process may change but the inner line remains same.

We have studied attentively Sambhu Mitra’s ‘Putul Khela’. He used symbolic impressions to manifest the reality of time. Resultantly Ibsen emerged to be a higher quality of playwright than he had been considered to be. Her play depicts our clever tactics to hide misdistribution of power amongst men and women with hypocritical grandiloquence. He exposes our opportunist mentality hidden by false parade of moral sense. Based on a family he raises her finger towards the crisis of the society, the falsehood inside faithfulness, destruction of belief and the inevitable tragic end of a compromising element.

Synopsis

The Bengali play ‘Khela Ghar’ based on Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ is the inner voice of women from time immemorial.

Neera, wife of Tomorash incidentally realises the tremendous power of patriarchy. And this realisation leads him to desert his family built by vigour of manhood.

Once Neera had to borrow a large amount of Tomorash and she repaid the amount bit by bit. At that time Tomorash was a poor part time collage teacher. But now he is a full time professor. In his collage Kalika is a clerk and presently facing the charge of misappropriation of fund. Dismissal is inevitable for her. Kalika knows that it is Tomorash who can save her and therefore meets Neera, reminding her the loan she had obtained, Kalika asks Neera to influence Tomorash so that he stand in her support.

Neera could not compromise. It is a crime. She cannot get Tomorash infamous for the sake of Kalika. She refuse Kalika’s proposal. Kalika understood that were request would not work. Something more is needed. She reminds Neera that while borrowing money she had forged the signature of her father and Tomorash knew nothing about it. It is a crime.

Neera is perplexed. She seeks help from her friend Kaberi who suggest her to disclose the matter to Tomorash.

Initially Neera was hesitant. She knew Tomorash won’t accept the misdeed. Still she decided she silent indifference of Tomorash pierce Neera.

But finally Tomorash comes to know everything from a biter of Kalika. He claims expiation for her ingratitude.

It transpires for Neera that she is nothing but a decorated doll in her family. Tomorash had never been an eligible element for her mind and love. She deserts her husband her family and even her children to find the real freedom.

Premiered On: 11th May 2019

Cast

Neera: Chaiti Ghoshal
Kaberi: Anjana Basu
Kalika: Shantanu Chattopadhyay
Dr. Rakshit: Biplab Bandyopadhyaya
Tamonash: Debshankar Halder

Creative Co-ordinators

Letter and Artistic Contribution – Biswanath De
Light – Debashish Roy
Music – Dishari Chakraborty
Make-up – Md. Israfil
Stage – Ranjit Deb
Voice – Kakali Mukhopadhyay
Painting – Manas Das
Craft – Dulal Chandra Majumdar
Costume – Bhaswati Mukherjee
Assistant Director – Babin Das
Publicity – Pritam Bhattacharya

Production Coordination

Production Controller – Arghya Mukherjee
Stage Assistant – Shatadal Chakraborty, Kar Creative Assistant – Amit Chatterjee, Asit Dey, Subhasish Chakraborty, Priyanka Dey, Sutapa Kundu Karna Chakraborty, Ankur Roy
Requisition – Anindita Das, Jhumur Saha

Technical Cooperations

Light Execution – Debashish Chakraborty
Music Execution – Promit Malakar, Gourab Bhatta

Creators

Source – Henrik Ibsen
Playwright – Ratan kumar Das
Design & Direction – Biplab Bandyopadhyay

Acknowledgement

Special Thanks – Suratirtha, Madhusudhan Mancha, Gyan Manch, Banerjee Concern, J.D. Construction, SSS Construction
Special Acknowledgement – Kaushik Ghosh, Atanu Maity, Shyamal Kumar Biswas, Ashim Kumar Mishra, Ayan Mitra, Soumendra Ranjan Ganguly, Salil Mukherjee, Rita Biswas, Rana Taran, Sayyed Kaimuddin, Tanay Kumar Das, Bikas Dutta, Sujay Kumar Sarkar, Debyendu Pal, Mita Pal, Biswajit Sen, Shankar Pradhan, Joydip Chowdhury