Ashoknagar Natyamukh celebrates its pre-Silver Jubilee
Ashoknagar
Natyamukh celebrated its pre-Silver Jubilee with a well-crafted short play and
a seminar that had promises of a serious academic exercise at the Tripti Mitra
Sabhagriha.
The play TWO
SOULS is an adaptation of O. Henry’s short story, ‘The Gift of the Magi’.
The play has not been localized by Ribhu Chakraborty, and so the American setting,
and that, too, of the early 20th century New York has been kept with
all its contexts and references. But the sequence of the O. Henry story of
divulging the events to the reader that leads to what Laura Furman says ‘his
famous trick – the twist at the end’, has been altered. Though the end has had
to be kept as per the original, the magic of the Master gets a bit diluted. Furman
notes, ‘the twist is really a wringing out of the plot elements and revealing
something that was there all along but the reader hadn’t noticed.’ So, the progression
of the plot that leads to the climactic twist matters a lot especially for such
a gem of a short story as this one. The two main elements on which O. Henry
built the story – Della’s knee-length hair and Jim’s pocket-watch did pose a
problem for the adaptation.
But that
does not snatch away any bit of credit from the playwright. It was told that this
drama was a maiden attempt on his part in penning a play. Though O. Henry’s
couple are down-to-earth and trying to make ends meet on a shoe-string economy,
the dramatist has given a poetic treatment to the relationship of the couple
using poems and recent band-songs, which for the uninitiated viewer is a
pleasant experience.
Abhi
Chakraborty’s mounting of the play stressed largely on the visual aspect. So,
he used the space of TMS more as a proscenium than as an intimate form. He
elaborately put up the acting zone with innovative uses of props which included
hanging widow frames, a frame purported to be a looking-glass, a couple of
short stools, a short rostrum, a long draping cloth and plastic sheets and
maple leaves cut-out from them. His designing thus was very well crafted giving
the spectators a delightful treat. He was equally extravagant with lights and
the soundscape that gave the production a richness. Though the plot of the
story thrived on the frugality of the couple, the maker of the play underlined
the love factor of the young couple. He was ably assisted by Shreya Sarkar in
sound and make-up, and by Shouvik Modak in lights. The couple played by Sharnya
De and Abhipsa Ghosh did their parts as directed.
In the
second half of the evening Ashoknagar Natyamukh arranged a seminar entitled
‘Notee’r Katha’ which loosely in English would be ‘The Actress Speaks’. Four of
present generation’s actresses, namely Amrapali Mitra, Rituparna Biswas,
Indudipa Sinha and Gulshanara Khatun spoke about their experiences working with
Ashoknagar Natyamukh under the direct care of Abhi and Sangeeta Chakraborty. But
sadly, the seminar which was expected to have been a serious discussion on the
process of building up a character and how these young actresses go through
that process, turned out to be a very light-hearted frolicking exercise mainly
due to an inapt conducting by Debjani Mukherjee.
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