NANDIPAT THEATRE GROUP: June 2017

Mrityu-Na-Hatya

Mrityu-Na-Hatya

Synopsis of the play – One need not go long back in history. Only a few decades ago, the world was witness to the rise of the neo-left movement, beyond the traditional confines of the Communist. Establishment, and in developed, developing and backward countries alike. We all know how the movement shook up the socio-political life in our country. And we know how brutally the State machinery came down to crush it.

It was 1969. The venue: Milan, Italy. Sixteen people died of a bomb explosion. Predictably, the country’s left extremists were indicted. Some of them got arrested. Of them, Pineilli died while in prison. Before dying, he disclosed – to the police the manes of his Comrades-in-Arms. The case dragged on for ten long years. At the end which it was proved that the Fascists, including an agent of Italy’s secret police force, were responsible for the crime. The political and military bigwigs who had them on their payroll were all let off with a mere censure. Only petty criminals got punished.

The incident featured in Dario Fo’s immortal paly, Accidental Death of an Anarchist. The national and international media had meanwhile criticised against the left extremists for the massacre in Milan. Dario Fo’s group, La Commune, went through the police reports, the investigation papers presented a parallel case through their play.

Based though on a tragic incident, the play, ironically enough, won plaudits for its presentation ass an outright comedy. The audience was kept entertained with a display of a series of comical absurdities on the stage. As the tragic events unfolded, revealing the ugly face of State terrorism, their faces turned grim and their eyes spiteful and angry.

Dario Fo’s art lies in casting an explosive subject in a comic mould. An art, indeed, worthy of emulation. As for the State power and ruling class, they retain character in history-be it in Mila in Italy, or in British India, or in Pinochet’s Chile, or for that matter, in Kolkata during the Congress regime )may be, during the present times even ?). Our ‘comedy’ Mrityu-Na-Hatya(Death, or Murder?) speaks of all this and more.

Credit :

Play : Dario Fo

Set Design : Sandip Suman Bhattacharya

Light : Jayanta Mukhopadhyay

Make-up : Sreedas

Sound Operation : Himangshu Pal

Wardrobe and Requisition : Biplab Naha Biswas

Production Controller : Saumitra Poddar

Publicity : Sanjib Chowdhury

Assistant Direction : Bimal Chakraborty

Adaptation and Direction : Bibhas Chakraborty

Cast :

Com. Ganapati Rao : Bimal Chakraborty

Ramoni Raman Karmakar : Biplab Naha Biswas

Runu Roy : Sanjib Chowdhury

Debi Neogi : Debdut Ghosh

Constable : Saumitra Poddar

Maitreyee Banerjee : Sarbani Bhattacharya

Duration of the Play - 2 Hours 10 minuties with an interval of 10 minuties.

First Show – 31^st August,1999 at Madhusudan Mancha, Kolkata

RAMANIMAHAN

RAMANIMAHAN

Ramanimohan, once an actor by profession, is now confined in his house though the inner-self of his soul always cherishes the bygone days of his acting career. He vividly visualizes the past and wishes to be on stage once more. An actor biologically, Ramonimohan, of course, acted in all the female roles and enthralled the spectator for years together. Unbelievable talent, Ramanimohan, is of no use today. A chance came; Ramani appears on stage once more after a long time. People burst into hilarity, some enjoyed his performance with profound amazement. A local political leader makes a room for proving his talent in his ripe old age.

The youngest son Tapu, on whom Ramani and Suprova depend for their square meal, became furious and scolded him out rightly and interned him. He has been compelled not to act on stage in a female role as people laugh at his gestures and behavior. Some strongly believed that Ramani must be a eunuch. Poverty – stricken Ramani find no avenue to prove his talent once again

An artists’ soul can never be contented in confinement. Ramani hears the irresistible call from stage. An opportunity suddenly helps him seeing a new ray of hope.

Playwright-Shekhar Samaddar

Set-Sandip Suman Bhattacharya

Light-Adhir Ganguly

Music-Prasanta Bhattacharya

Make-up-Tapan Chakraborty

Sound Operation-Himangshu Pal

Direction :: Prokash Bhattacharya

CAST

Ramanimohan :: Chapal Bhadhuri

Suprova :: Sarbani Bhattacharya

Tapu :: Subhobrata Dey

Abani Talukdar :: Sandip Suman Bhattacharya

Kamal Kishore Sen :: Biplab Naha Biswas

Reporter :: Sarbani Saha

Subhas :: Sanjoy Das

Youngman :: Pintu Das

Youngman :: Triguna Shankar Manna

Youngman :: Bikash Kali Ghosh

Photographer :: Ashis Saha

First Show : 10th october 2005, Bombay House, Jaipur, 10 PM

Last Show : 05th December 2014, Academy Of Fine Arts , 6.30 PM

Duration of the play :: 1hr. 45mins. (with an interval of 10 mins.)

BHROM

BHROM

The elderly people of our present-day world must suffer the doom of a companionless existence. But the grey overtone of their withered days are sometimes relieved by a patch of green, a shower of the spring-when they defy their age and look forward to discover their own self through others. Something change is wrought in the lives of three elderly gentlemen-a retired senior police officer, a doctor, and a superannuated professor who indulges in painting. It is Rohini, a middle-aged beauty, to whom they owe this magic transformation.

But the axe of fatality has little reverence for the old age, and it strikes professor Srikumar who gets killed at the hand of his own servant. Rohini by this time had formed a special bond with professor, and his death leaves her in a state of a perpetual anxiety of getting killed in the hand of her own maid. Similar events in the headlines confirm her fear of a hidden knife lurking in the dark.

A gnawing insecurity of being left alone drives Rohini to take recourse to from one illusion to another. ‘I must kill before I become a prey to the killer’, she thinks. She the spectra of the dead professor everywhere.

Taranga, Rohini’s maid, suddenly disappears from the scene. The other elderly friends of the professor immediately set themselves to find a clue-one with a seasoned eye of a veteran investigator, and another with his practice of psycho-analysis. They delve into the facts, analyse them, and corroborate them with the testimony of Rohini. What really happened to Taranga? Is she killed too? Who killed her, and what is the ‘motive’?

Question, illusions, interpretations and misinterpretations spins round the mystery of disappearance and murder. As the suspense grows, an existential crisis of our ordinary everyday life slowly emerges from the dark.

Play – Ujjwal Chattopadhyay

Set Design – Sandip Suman Bhattacharya

Light Design – Badal Das

Music – Swapan Bandopadhyay

Make up – Alok Debnath

Sound Operation – Himangsu Pal & Bikash Kali Ghosh

Light Operation – Triguna Shankar & Dipak Dev

Set Making – Madan-Tinku

Requisition – Biplab Naha Biswas

Production Controller – Pintu Das

Production Assistance – Anjan Roychowdhury,

Ashis Das, Bappa Bangal, Mandira Banerjee.

Direction – Prokash Bhattacharya

On Stage :

Prasad – Sanjib Chowdhury

Bidhubhusan – Saumitra Poddar

Srikumar – Bimal Chakraborty
Rohini – Piyali Basu

Taranga – Sarbani Saha

Pabitra – Netai Hembram / Triguna Shankar

Ratan – Pintu Das

Manada – Mandira Banerjee / Sarbani Bhattacharya

Bouquet Carrier – Ashis Das / Avinandan Roy

Duration of the Play – 2 hrs. 10 mins. (including an Interval of 10 mins.)

First Show : 31st March 2012, Gyan Mancha, 6.30 PM

Last Show : 25th February 2014, Academy Of Fine Arts, 6.30 PM

SHRINWANTU COMREDES

SHRINWANTU COMREDES

The play transport us back to only one day in the life of the Great Leader of Soviet Russia. Aware that he is mortally ill with two bullets by the reactionaries still in his body, Lenin is concerned only with the amount of time he has left to give a firm foundation and a clear direction to a revolution that is opening a hitherto unknown, un-trodden path. People of Soviet Union shock the world and changed the course of human history; ordinary people they were, of whom history demanded extra-ordinary deeds, courage and self-sacrifice. The thoughts and the man are one. And both were molded by the trials of the most trying times — times, which witnessed the most far-reaching triumph of the human spirit. Revolutionary Russia, the young Soviet Republic, was literally fighting for its very life grappling with hunger, industrial and agricultural paralysis as well as capitalist encirclement. And so was the leader of the great Revolution. Only as he well known and his fellow workers and his doctor could not conceal, his battle for life was a loosing one. Still he keeps on fighting fiercely against the deadening disease of dogma and infantile leftist extremism. He is firm in combating “Communist Highhandedness”, bureaucracy and soullessness. His vision is not blurred with any preoccupied ideas devoid of Marxism and thus he finally decides to address the meeting of Young Communist League who will be the future torch bearers of the millions of toil up masses of Soviet Russia and the world over.