Prachyo Theatre Festival 2019-20

Prachyo Theatre Festival 2019-20 - Phase 1 plays

Matbring

“Wangal” is festival of harvest, Kanu Sangma the Mandi-tribal boy who is intoxicated by his addiction towards the festival. He madly falls in love with Mitti Faroque, a girl in the tribe. He used to run endlessly in the forest after sound of jhumar of Mitti. Whereas, Mitti used to run after her favorite pet Fighter(rabbit). Kanu cannot bare Mitti’s love for fighter and out of jealousy he kills the rabbit with his lance. This incident wrecks havoc in Mitti’s heart and she reacts voliolently towrads kanu. Few days later, Kanu hears Mitti’s scream from the forest. He follows her sound inside the forest and founds out Mitti got attacked by a wild bull. He charges after the bull and kills it and later the whole tribe feasts on the bull. Then Kanu and Mitti fall in love. Her mother does’nt approve of their relationship, she wants her daughter to get a job in the city.

As their tribe were always deprived of their land from the government in the name of development and betterment of the tribe. They might lose their land anytime, so it is better to have a new livelihood in the city. This affects kanu, question arises in his mind. If he loses the mother forest then he might lose mitti forever. So he leaves back everyone and goes to city, there finds a job as a watchman. Whereas mitti’s mother wants to send her daughter to city to earn for their living. Mitti does’nt want to leave, she wants to wait for kanu to come back and be together. In the meantime, ‘ Country Housing And Developing Company’ comes in the forest reaches with an agreement. Where they will take over their land and tranform it into tourist spot and rehabilitate the tribe. Kalabati Sangma reminds the tribe how they were neglected repeatedly all the years in the name of development. Will the tribe able to save their land? Will the tribe able to save their existence? Will Kamu and Mitti ever be together?

Condemned Cell

Ishrat and Mausa are two prisnors, locked in the same jail. Ishrat is a married, muslim lady and is a passionate dancer. Her husband is not appreciative of her dance, so her aesthetic sensibilities were hurt. She took a divorce. Her husband was angry, and to avenge his humiliation he tried to rape her. She faught fiercely and killed her husband with her hijaab around his neck. MausaMausa is a painter, he was arrested for a painting that presumably had anti-state resonances; a dissension. Coincidentally, both of them were put in cells alongside the other. They never met or saw each other, but could feel the presence and eventually, fell in love.

One day, Ishrat was removed from her cell by the guards. Mausa terribly felt her absence and desperately wanted to be with her, thus, he fled from the prison and was chased by the police. Finally, he was shot dead like the proverbial ‘highwayman’ – a dead dog on the street.

Borda Borda

It is a story of two brothers. The younger one is truant, and the elder is an all-work Jack. One is nine, and the other, fourteen. Yet it is the younger that comes first in the exams on every term, and the older repeats the story of his failure. The younger brother, now an aged man, recounts his childhood days in an interview before a camera. As we listen to the interview and watch it at the same time, the image of the ridiculous man in the elder brother fades into the larger-than-life image of a man who brings before us the essence of family ties, social bonding, education, and the values inherited. We listen, feel, and learn on the stage and across; so does, as it seem, the author himself having his story retold from letter to dramatics.

One more thing before we end. The camera is made to capture the live moments in this play. The truth and experience revealed through an actor on stage is projected upstage through an image with a ten-fold blow-up: the actors face and its magnified image on the screen create a third impression in the mind of the audience.

Bishanna Barud

When idealism, duty and love collide, it creates an uncontrolled vortex of events that engulfs all. Bishonno Barud is a commentary about a time when Bengal was torn between the utopian visions of an egalitarian society, aversion towards violence as a means to achieve that goal, and the brutality of suppression led by the police. Set in this larger backdrop of a clash of ideologies of the far-left radical movement and the state led suppression through violence, this play shows how these forces perturb the fabric of four ordinary lives.

Who is an insurgent, it asks the audience? The idealist resorting to violence to achieve a greater good, or the police officer, plagued by his conscience, but bound by duty to wield violence? Take this journey with this story’s protagonists as they struggle to come to terms with the answers. Maybe within their chronicle, we too will find a way to recognize the demons of that plague us today.

Prachyo Theatre Festival 2019-20 - Phase 2 plays

Archimedes-er Mrityu

Over the ages, Mankind has evolved and broadened its horizon with scientific advancement! Whatever Mankind today, has prevailed through science! Ancient and contemporary. At the same time, the absolute personal greed and power craving people give birth to the destruction of the Earth and human rights through war and politics of their own in the name of people. And they have accomplished their dividend destroying the life of the people and nature. Archimedes was a scientific zealot. Who wanted to bring science to the common man. But State and monarchy and merchants always want to make dividend from science for their own purposes only. So they one hand try to control the scientific research, another hand they compel to researchers only to discover -invent and develop scientific advancement for their own personal gain. Most people have been submitted to this totalitarianism. But the history of mankind gives birth to a few men and women, who never succumbed to this tyrannical misery. They fight against tyranny, and have brought forward mankind up to this day. Archimedes wanted to bring and serve science to the common people. But Rulers wanted to use him as a mare instrument for their own profits! He fought against monarchy and traders, who wanted make dividend from his scientific work.

He developed some war merchandise only to protect the nation. However monarchs and traders want him to sale those as profit making products! He would not allow this to destroy Mankind. And he believes it’s a shame for the scientific fraternity to create weapons only for War. Life of Archimedes taught us this bequest of the fight against the tyrants and traders, who uses science and nature only for their own revenues. He never relinquished to these power mongers and bloodsuckers of the history. Archimedes is one of the early martyrs of science. Who said – creating or expanding science for war is crime against humanity.

Raghupati

The majority of the original play written by Rabindranath Tagore has been adapter. Eight scenes have been selected from the origins work. The dialogues have been adapted to suit the contemporary times. Apart from this play, various poems and passages written by Tagore have been used to interpret Tagore during the various stages of his life. Particularly his 1904 collection of poems. Four original songs have been used along with two Rabindrasangeet. The modern songs are sung on the stage by Neel Dutta. Keeping in mind the times out country is witnessing with the societal and political crisis, we have felt that this text and Rabindranath himself needs to be revisited and understood. The main story has not all been changed. But, as it literally not Bisarjan, hence Raghupati.

Pore Pawa Sholo Ana

The plot of PPSA revolves mainly around the most important thing of our lives-Money. AsAs the story unfolds bit by bit, characters and characteristics change for the greed of money, the long lost battle of the oppressor and the oppressed and of course social structures; but the only thing which gives this serious plot a makeover is its comical satire. Madan Mondol, is a landlord of a village in our own rural Bengal. The landlord has a weakness for money, but himself is a miser. A respected personality, among the villagers for his stature in the village.

Bhanu and Panu, two brothers work at Madan Mondol’s. Toru, a servant girl and later Bhanu’s love interest looksafter the household chores. Madan Mondol on his way back home, from this usual visit to the bazaar is interrupted byBubai Bowri (a lottery salesman),who sells tickets to him which he never wins, only whining after a long time Madan Mondol says to give it to Panu. He gives three tickets to Panu. Finally,when Bubai Bowri gives the news that Madan Mondol has won the lottery, the ticket is misplaced. Speculations are made and oieveryone targets Panu as the ticket was given tohim. BhanuBhanu and Toru set their love story slowly. BubaiBubai suspects that Panu has another tticke which has won the prize and comes with Bal Digambhar Pandit( a police inspector). One by one the characters change their attitudes towards Panu, starting from Mandan Mondol, Holodhor (village shopkeeper), and the village Pradhan as well as Bal Dighambar Pandit. SimultaneouslySimultaneously,with all this process Bubai Bowri comes and informs that the ticket hasn’t won the lottery but the prize is on another number after the Brom Sansadhan. Now what will it be? Does it end here?

Magon Rajar Pala

Two thieves with the same motive, accidentally meet in a vacant flat. One is known as Raja who is quite educated yet a failure in life ; and the other one known as Magan who belongs to a poor family. Though both of them have different backgrounds, different stories, different perspectives of life but despite all the difference they get two things in common, one is their motive to steal and the other is their connection to each other’s soul. They become good friends in no time and decide to steal every inch of their house and divide the loot amongst the each other honoring the proverb –

“ Honor amongst thieves “

Raja prefers to call themselves business man rather than thieves. Is it the businessman stealing and acting as thieves? Or thieves doing business and acting as businessman? The play sets you in waves of emotion with extreme love and hatred in the perspective of both the characters.

The play shows us the ups and downs of both these characters and shows us the way towards morality and purity of souls and also somehow questions the whole society who exactly the thieve is? Is it just Magan or Raja? Or everyone of us?

Kabye Ganey

Poems had an enormous influence upon me from the start of my theatre career. Upon reading through certain specific poems, the idea of completely understanding the substance of the prose and it’s rhythm was very exciting for me to discover as an actor. This thought was always at the back of my head. Certain poems act as windows to various pathways to our soul and as an actor our job is to imbibe the text deeply and to express the poems is a way in which the body, voice, rhythm, gestures, music and obviously acting are mixed into a singular whole. This practice was happening consciously and subconsciously everyday. I used to practice in my acting class, sometimes alone, sometimes with students. This bore fruit to ‘Meghnadhbadh Kabya’, ‘Sojonbadiyar Ghat’, ‘Jara Brishtite Bhijechhilo’ and ‘Kabye Ganey’.

Kabye Ganey – This play is an amalgamation of different facets of the performing arts. This play is performed using poems which are expressed using acting, dancing, singing, rhythm, music ranging from folk to the sacred music, dance ranging from the classical to the folk, all of these are very exciting for a performer to discover every time. This work has featured poems by different poets with different tone and presentation. These include Tagore’s collected folklore, Satyendranath Dutta, Sankha Ghosh, Joy Goswami, Shakti Chattopadhyay, Buddhadeb Basu, Premendra Mitra, Kaushik Raichoudhury, Brecht and many others.

Captain Hurrah

This drama is just not an adventure for me but a place of intense shock too. The irony is that I could not stage this drama in front of Sir. I know this drama may not be for everyone, but it is really ours. This drama is also for those who love to dream even today. Under this tyrannical sky, who still want to throw their hands up today. In search of a better time and greedy dream, I suddenly found Captain, written by my favorite contemporary playwright, Mohit Chattopadhyay. I am doing the play with the permission of his wife. But again, alas. The implication is that I created the Captain a little differently, with a little bit of my imagination. This drama is an absurd drama. This absurdity has led to a lot of quarrels, differences of opinion between our group. Captain Hurrah became very close to us.

I learned a lot that theatre practice is essentially multifaceted in nature and I tried to approach this text in new ways. After a lot of discussion with Soumen, light was created which wasim portant for the setting, Devdeep’s tone was also born in Bangla drama – an exceptional music. There is only one request I have for the audience. Don’t judge the play with the binary of good and bad. This play is an attempt in Absurd drama. The captain is in town, are you guys ready with a map to explore the sea on his ship?

Kojagori

Our play, Kojagori, a dramatic adaptation of Howard Fasts novel, Sailas Timberman, is an effort to raise a voice of protest against gross misuse of power to serve the market forces in their continuing onslaught on nature in search of more and more profits. The play shows how ordinary men like our protagonist, Sailesh Kashtho, can transform into a rebel by overcoming the fear-psychosis created by the ruthless tools of power. His is not only the voice of protest but also the voice of sanity which reassures us again and again that there are people who will unfailingly keep the struggle for resistance alive. And by keeping the resistance alive, people like Sailesh Kashtho keep our hope for a more democratic world and environment alive.

Kojagori, the play opens up a window to an ordinary household to witness the birth of the determined dissenting voice in the threatened, traumatized body of an ordinary man.

Prithibi-Rasta Shabdo

The story starts with a pregnant lady taking her dying husband to Hospital by pulling a rickshaw on her own but the hospital refused to treat him and finally he died. The pregnant lady cremated her husband and took shelter in the footpath. Bugger night guards of the city started to rape her repeatedly but one night she bit their sex organs to get a respite!

After a day’s ordeal, Rabi, a rickshaw-puller by profession, suddenly heard a baby is weeping at a garbage pail. He adopted the deserted baby and named her Pari. Rabi found a motive of living in bringing Pari up.

Time passed. Now, Pari herself is a mother but she surrendered her little son, Bodhisotwo, up to Rabi’s custody only to disappear. Rabi continued to raise Bodhisotwo all alone and he left behind his stable along with poor pets – an unfledged parrot, a lame cat, etc. Does Bodhisotwo’s life maintain an undisturbed flow with these pets? Will the roads of our city allow him to grow as its citizen? Will he be able to live alone…!

Sujan Harbola

The name was given by Rabindranath – Harbola i.e. a foley artist. People were involved in this practice from the earliest of times. The exchange of thoughts used to occur through certain words. These words gradually took the form a ‘language’. This story is from a long time ago. In the rich history of our vernacular literature, such examples of foley artists seem rare. In one of his innumerable short stories written for children, Satyajit Ray gave us a picture of such an artist with the help of his effortless prose. A child who wants to break free from the barriers of his classroom and venture out in the world to try and communicate with different animals and birds. Those living creatures, which are classified as non-human also try and communicate with this person using their own ‘language’. The writer named this boy, Sujan.

The name of the story, Sujan Harbola. Sujan grows up with time, becomes a young man. As the financial situation of his family was not suitable to lead a comfortable life, his father, Dibakar suggested him to venture out and look for vocations which will help him to survive in this world. Out of his endearment, he also suggests the name of Kartik Harbola to his son. In his search for this lost art, Sujan becomes a professional foley artist. He reaches Charali forest. There he meets the king of Ajab Nagar who was out in the wild to hunt for wild animals. Impressed by this rare talent displayed by this young boy, the king takes Sujan to his kingdom. The king’s daughter, Srimati also gets enthralled upon seeing Sujan communicating with birds. Also, far from the city of Ajab Nagar, on top of a huge mountain, there was a monster who ate birds. His diet only consisted of birds. The kingdom had everything, except a revolution. The princess took an oath. Whoever could kill this ‘Bihangobhuk’ monster, she would marry him. Sujan took a weapon from the king and seeking his blessings, ventured into the dark cave inside the mountain to kill this monster. Ajab Nagar celebrated like never before. The sound of the shehnai roamed through the air. The princess married Sujan. This story which was filled with fairytale elements took the shape of a play, with the pen of Biplab Bandyopadhyay. Prachyo’s children’s wing, KKNS was elated to perform this play.

Condemned Cell

Ishrat and Mausa are two prisoners, locked in the same jail. Ishrat is a married, Muslim lady and is a passionate dancer. Her husband is not appreciative of her dance, so her aesthetic sensibilities were hurt. She took a divorce. Her husband was angry, and to avenge his humiliation he tried to rape her. She fought fiercely and killed her husband with her hijab around his neck. Mausa is a painter, he was arrested for a painting that presumably had anti-state resonances; a dissension. Coincidentally, both of them were put in cells alongside the other. They never met or saw each other, but could feel the presence and eventually, fell in love. One day, Ishrat was removed from her cell by the guards. Mausa terribly felt her absence and desperately wanted to be with her, thus, he fled from the prison and was chased by the police. Finally, he was shot dead like the proverbial ‘highwayman’ – a dead dog on the street.

Khelaghor

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 Tomonash incidentally realizes the tremendous power of patriarchy. And this realization leads her to desert her family built by vigor of manhood. Once Neera had to borrow a large amount from Kalika and she repaid the amount bit by bit. At that time Tomonash 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 him.

Kalika knows that it is Tomonash who can save him and therefore meets Neera, reminding her the loan she had obtained, Kalika asks Neera to influence Tomorash so that he stand in his support. NeeraNeera could not compromise. It is a crime. She cannot get Tomonash 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 Tomonash knew nothing about it. It is a crime. Neera is perplexed. He seeks help from her friend Kaberi who suggest her to disclose the matter to Tomonash. Initially Neera was hesitant. She knew Tomonash won’t accept the misdeed. Still she decided she silent indifference of Tomonash pierce Neera.But finally Tomonash comes to know everything from a biter of Kalika. He claims expiation for his in gratitude.It transpires for Neera that she is nothing but a decorated doll in her family. Tomonash 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.