Entertainment Desk:

The “July Reawakening Theatre Festival” is currently underway at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, featuring 11 new productions by 11 theatre troupes. Organised to reflect on the spirit of the July movement, the festival opened on July 31 at the National Theatre Hall and will continue till August 8.

Organised by the academy, the festival aims to revisit stories of resistance, loss, and collective conscience through the lens of contemporary performance. Each evening at 7pm, new plays are being staged, with free entry passes available at the venue’s ticket counter.

On Friday (August 1), the second day of the festival, Teerondaz Repertory premiered their new production “Shuvonkar Haath Dhor¬te Cheyechhilo”, written and directed by Deepak Suman. Despite the evening rain, a notable audience turnout was seen at the National Theatre Hall. Viewers took to social media to praise the play’s nuanced portrayal of isolation, unrequited love, revolutionary disillusionment, and helplessness—all threaded into a single narrative.

Speaking about the production, Suman said, “The state denied us theatre for almost eight years. We didn’t stay silent; we waited. After returning to the stage with older works, I knew I needed to write something new. That moment came after the 2024 movement. This play is not just a memory of loss—it’s a reminder of our responsibility to lives we can never reclaim.”

Also staged on the same evening at the Experimental Theatre Hall was “Deyal Janey Shob”, the latest production by Spandan Theatre Circle. Written and directed by Shakil Ahmed Sonnet, the play had its second showing that night.

On Saturday the third day of the festival, Ethora Theatre is set to present “Rokto Kadam”, written and directed by Ira Ahmed. The play follows a female protester who, standing against the tide of history, challenges not only the personal but also the societal structures that bind her.

The festival was inaugurated on July 31 by Mohammad Wares Hossain, Secretary and Acting Director General of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Faiz Zahir, Director of the Theatre and Film Department, delivered the welcome remarks. The opening night featured “Re-Revolt”, a production by Team Colors, conceptualised and directed by Nayla Azad.

In a statement, the academy noted that the festival calls on the younger generation to engage with cultural consciousness, democratic responsibilities, and ethical reflections. “Theatre must become an intimate medium of social accountability,” the statement read.