The octogenarian thespian Ashok Mukherjee in Theatre Workshop’s Great
Bengal Theatre
In commemoration
of the 150 years of the commercial Bengali theatre, Theatre Workshop staged its
latest production in a grand scale so to say, in tune with the play they had
selected for their presentation. The play Great Bengal Theatre by
Sumitro Bandopadhyay is an attempt to retell the story of the initial days of
the so-called professional stage in the early twentieth century Calcutta. Theatre
had mainly developed amongst the small affluent society of the Babus of the
city. Though it had its petit bourgeoise traits of arrogance, corruption and
self-promotion, it did things with pomp and grandeur. So, in order to
accommodate these societal characteristics of the time Sumitro had to extend
his play to a longer length than usual.
The play
centers around a character called Jogen Ganguli who is a contemporary of the
likes of Giris Chandra, Ardhendu Sekhar, Amritalal, and owns the theatre troupe
Great Bengal Theatre which is in an utter financial crisis. Atulya, a young man
has joined the group with a dream to bring in fresh air into Bengali theatre. According
to his narrative Jogen endures the insults of the theatre hall owner who is a
businessman to the core and is totally ignorant about the arts. But in order to
save his dear theatre Jogen in spite of going in for compromises tries to stick
to his principles. Unfortunately, in this process of conciliation the main
actress of the troupe, who coming from a brothel has for the last twenty-five
years made theatre her life, her only vocation, loses her position in the group
and suffers humiliation. She commits suicide. Atulya urges Jogen to stage new
plays and King Lear is selected as a result. Jogen plays Lear while a new young
actress who believes she is the illegitimate child of Jogen, is given the role
of Cordelia. Sumitro has brought in some associated and accessory matters some
of which have little to do with the main theme in an attempt to suggest the
political and social backdrop of the then theatre world of Bengal. And things like
the tomfoolery parts of a person who writes lowly plays for Jogen’s production,
or the flirtations of a wealthy man with the young actress, or the Partition of
Bengal have only contributed in the lengthening of the play. One would have
loved to watch instead a bit more of the King Lear portion where Lear faces
Cordelia. This expectation of the viewers was more so as the great thespian
Ashok Mukherjee in his mid-eighties performed the role of Jogen. It was a very
mixed feeling to watch this actor on the stage as the role’s performance is not
a cameo-type. He had to spend extended time on the stage delivering long
dialogues. And it was a treat, of course, for the viewers to watch him give the
character a classical flavour, and listen to his immaculate diction with
perfect modulation of the voice at such an advanced age as his. Rina Halder in
the role of the senior actress was commendable. Sumitro as Atulya, Debashis
Roychoudhury as a patron of Jogen’s theatre, or Jagabandhu Chakraborty as the
failed playwright or Shreya Banerjee as the young actress did their roles to
the book. Neel Kaushik’s stage design was well executed by Bilu Dutta, while
Sumit Chakraborty’ lights did their part. Sk. Israfil’s make-up works need to
be appreciated. Music by Swapan Shome lacked the spirit of the run of the play.
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