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The Tempest ready to set sail

Imogen Butler-Cole coaches Dhaka Theatre for World Shakespeare Festival

Jamil Mahmud
While Dhaka Theatre is in its penultimate phase with “The Tempest" to attend the World Shakespeare Festival in UK, the play's producer and representative of the fest, Imogen Butler-Cole says that the play is going to be something unique for the London audience. She feels that the traditional Manipuri cultural elements, which the play incorporates, make it truly Bangladeshi.
“ 'Tempest' has been directed by Nasiruddin Yousuff, in a kind of traditional Manipuri style, which is going to be quite new and interesting for London,” says Imogen, who works with the theatre company The What Works as a performer, director and educator.
There are a couple of Manipuri artistes who have been working with Dhaka Theatre. They will play the drums and percussions throughout the play. Several Manipuri dances will be featured in the play as well. They've also been training the rest of the actors.
The festival will see 37 Shakespeare plays performed in as many languages and forms. It is part of the London 2012 Festival, which ties in with the Summer Olympics.
“The festival is going to feature every single play by Shakespeare. London has this attitude of internationalism. So I think, the Globe has been trying to articulate the languages which are more or less spoken by its inhabitants,” says Imogen.
According to Imogen, between 7 and 10 participating plays will be from Asia — India, Pakistan, Japan, China, South Korea and Hong Kong.
Imogen has worked with BBC in Bangladesh. That's when she heard about the festival. A couple of months later when she went to London, she contacted the organisers of the festival and told them about the troupes here in Dhaka.
"I told them about Dhaka Theatre and its productions such as 'Dhaboman' and others. They took my recommendation and asked me to contact them.. .Yousuff actually wanted to work on 'Macbeth' but by that time the play was already been chosen by another troupe,” she
The play is designed for a performance space called 'Globe', which is different horn proscenium and the actors in
Dhaka are not used to this kind of performance. So Imogen finds herself as a performance coach who will train the actors in this
“In the Globe format, the stage is surrounded by three levels of audience seating, including the gallery level and the ground space. So there are lots of areas that the performance has to reach out to and the Globe is an open space, so the roof is open,” says Imogen.
She came from the UK about a week ago to observe the troupe's development. She saw a couple of run-throughs so far. She is also looking forward to the premiere show in Dhaka that will take place on April 27 at the National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakaia Academy.
Dhaka Theatre will stage “The Tempest” at the London festival on May 7 and 8.