Entertainment Desk:

Prominent theatre troupe Swapnadal will stage its anti-war production “Tringsha Shatabdi” at the Studio Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on 16 August. The theatre troupe will perform the show under the ‘Hiroshima Day 2024’ observation programme.

The programme will feature a Hiroshima-Nagasaki Tragedy based poster exhibition and video projection, a screening of a documentary on Swapnadal’s regular Hiroshima Day observation initiatives, distributing paper cranes to the audience in remembrance of a bomb-victim Japanese child Sadako Sasaki, a brief anti-war discussion and 123rd performance of “Tringsha Shatabdee”.

Based on Indian playwright Badal Sarkar’s story, Zahid Repon has adapted and directed the play. “Tringsha Shatabdee” is an anti-war laboratory theatre production mainly based on the atom-bomb tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War. According to the troupe, the play is a protest against war and speaks for promoting peace worldwide.

A narrator opens the play raising questions about the war and seeking the trial of the war criminals. He interrogates some historical characters such as Einstein, Major Thomas Ferebee (the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima), and Claude Eatherly (who carried the nuclear bomb to Nagasaki and later went insane on his realisation of the crime).

Zahid Repon will play a few roles, including those of the narrator and protagonist in the drama.

Besides, Jueyana Shabnam, Fazla Rabbi, Samad Bhuiyan, Shishir Shikder, Zebunnesa, Shakhawat Shamol, Mehedi Rana, Shonali Rahman and Arko Apu will be seen acting different roles in “Tringsha Shatabdi”.

Swapnadal premiered the production in 2002. Since then Swapnadal has been trying to establish anti-war consciousness by performing this production and observing ‘Hiroshima Day’ every year.