& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Dhaka University Theatre Festival

Celebrating life and denouncing evil

Nadia Sarwat
Through the plays staged at the Dhaka University Theatre festival 2008, students arc demonstrating their profound understanding of the medium as an instrument both to point a finger to the vices of the society and celebrate human relationships. With the staging of the plays Bhaluk and Biporjoy, the festival reached its third day on August 14.
Bhaluk is a comedy with a message that recognises the power of the eternal relationship between a man and a woman to win over all the odds of life. Director Mahfuza Khan did justice in treating the play translated by Sirajur Rahman from Anton Chekov's The Bear. The storyline of the one-act play deals with an upper class, beautiful and young widow who tries to extend her mourning to the extent that it becomes a fake ritual that simply cannot go with her youthful vivaciousness. However, the ritual collapses as an ill-tempered, unmarried man enters the scenario.
With a set designed by Afsana Siddiqui, actors Nusrat Farhana Lisa; Faridul Islam Fardin and Mostafa Amin seemed to win the hearts of the audience .witfrwitty dialogues in the play.
Biporjoy — a translation of Samuel Beckett’s Catastrophe — by National Professor Kabir Chowdhury, came as an acid test to the nerve of the audiences who
seek good old-fashioned entertainment from theatre. Rehnuma Hossain, director of the play, seemed to takes the protest Beckett shows against dictatorship in the play through his use of absurdity and grotesque even further. Without being directly political, the play obviously relays a political message through a symbolic representation of the humiliated humanity in the hands of a dictator.
In the play, the dictator is a director of a play within a play, who, supported by his assistant, does whatever he wants with the protagonist. Jahangir Kabir Palash (the director), Fahmida Sultana Tanji (assistant) and Farzana Kabir (the protagonist) seemed at ease in their roles. Farzana Kabir's endurance, both as the character and a real-life actor, simply proves her dedication to theatre. Rehnuma has used multimedia to show some shocking footages of violence taking place all over the „ world -- ranging from torture in a Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq to the | familiar image of Nur Hossain of £ Bangladesh. The audience appre- 2 ciated the effort with a round of > applause.
"To me, the play is very relevant .to the. present, global situatioo^, where wp are all under some kind * of dictatorship. It is in our family structure, our society', and our state, everywhere. We all are like the powerless protagonist in the play.” Rehnuma said. Chairman of the department. Dr. Israhi Shaheen said, “The sensitivity, sensibility and concern to the social reality as reflected
through the play really satisfied me.The young director shows the courage to deal with this theme with great maturity "