Entertainment Desk:

A two-day theatre festival titled “Nattyapala-Swapnadal Badal Sircar Natya Ayojon”, jointly organised by Nattyapala and Swapnadal begins at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in the capital today, marking the Indian dramatist and theatre director Badal Sircar’s death anniversary.

Veteran actor and director Abul Hayat will inaugurate the event at the academy’s Experimental Theater Hall in the evening.

On the opening day, Nattyapala will premiere Badal Sircar’s play “Bagh” directed by Tosaddek Hossain Manna.

Social neglect, deprivation, and lack of education can turn people into animals. But humans are a reservoir of infinite possibilities so that they can come back from the endpoint of the fall. One such story has come up through various events in the lives of two men and women in the production of the drama “Bagh”.

On the other hand, Swapnadal’s anti-war production “Tringsha Shatabdee” will be staged on the second day. Written by Badal Sircar, Zahid Repon has adapted and directed the play.

The story of “Tringsha Shatabdee” is an artistic presentation of protest against the most scandalous chapter in world history- the atomic bombing of Hiroshima-Nagasaki in Japan, during World War II. Parallel to this, the Liberation War of Bangladesh, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Pakistan-India war, barbaric attacks in Kuwait-Tunisia-Yemen-Syria-Turkey-Myanmar, Russia-Ukraine war, and Israel’s violence in Palestine have been included in the play.

Zahid Repon, Jueyana Shabnam, Fazla Rabbi, Samad Bhuiyan, Shishir Shikder, Zebunnesa, Shakhawat Shamol, Mehedi Rana, Shonali Rahman, Arko Apu and others have played different roles in the play.

Besides, a documentary on Swapnadal’s Japan show titled “Swapnaural-Surjadayer Deshe” will be screened before staging the play.

Sudhindra Sircar, also known as Badal Sarkar, was an influential Indian dramatist and theatre director, most known for his anti-establishment plays during the Naxalite movement in the 1970s.

He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1972, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1968 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour in the performing arts by Govt. of India, in 1997. The dramatist died on 13 May 2011 (aged 85) in Kolkata.