THE 39TH ISSUE of SAS NATYAPATRA:
a very significant addition to the Bengali theatre library
It is a
ritual sort of for the theatre folks to await eagerly the latest issue of SAS
Natyapatra mainly because the finicky, scrupulous editor Satya Bhaduri flashes
out fresh new plays written by well-known, little known and not-so-known
playwrights, of which it is seen that some are originals, some adaptations,
while some are translations. Another point of attractions has been the fare of
articles that Bhaduri assigns different persons to pen. And so, what results is
a very good feed for the hungry readers.
The present
issue which happens to be the 39th is strikingly noteworthy for its
editorial. The editorial piece is a very worrying commentary on the present
political scenario of our country which is virtually under a hegemonistic,
xenophobic one-party rule that tolerates no disagreement, no opposition, and
fans a fire of hatred towards sections of the society, be it religious or
intellectual, that they fear would shake their flimsy foundation of
ultra-nationalism. The piece gives a clear and loud call for remonstrations and
protests. One may wonder why is a theatre journal has such a political editorial piece. Theatre is always a political statement and those
who do theatre, and those who watch theatre, and those who write about theatre
and think about theatre are all political. Yes, those who question why should a
theatre journal have a meticulously written political editorial, are so to say also
asking this politically, may be unknowingly. The ostrich-view of things around
us only supports tacitly what is being served.
A very warm
congratulations to Satya Bhaduri, indeed!
There are
five original plays in this number. Amongst the playwrights Ratankumar Das,
Ujjwal Chattopadhyay, Tirthankar Chanda and Sekhar Samaddar are names pretty
well known while that of Sumit Dasgupta is less known, at least to me. I resist
from discussing the plays and let the readers enjoy them first-hand. A
translation play is included in the collection, and that would be quite
interesting for the readers. The actor-lyricist-screenwriter-NSD grad Piyush
Mishra’s Jab Sahar Hamara Sota Haye has ben translated by Arindam
Dasgupta.
The third
instalment of the serial by Siddartha Chakraborty entitled Bharat Rahasya
Sandhane is the first article of the seven articles in this issue. The next
one Bharatiya Natysahityer Byaktigata Pathakrom is by Hindol
Bhattacharya. As the title suggests this essay gives the reader a very personal
interpretation of the long theatre journey touching the milestones that
described and decorated the long path. Rudradip Chakraborty’s piece about his
journey around the world discovering Ratan Thiam’s theatrical philosophy as reflected
in different countries. For the average theatre-loving readers like the present
writer, it reveals many a thing that remained unknown till now. So is the essay
by Arindam Ghosh who writes extensively about Thomas Edward Bond, the English
theorist-playwright, about whose book on drama theory, I came to know while
writing my Theatrer Darshak Darshaker Theatre, but did not delve into
any further. Then it was after Bond’s death I got to know fleetingly about this
socialist playwright. Arindam, as his quite a few previous essays have shown,
has done an expansive discussion of great academic value with detailed
references. Subhendu Sarkar has written about Brecht and Dario Fo, while Soumi
Sen has discussed about theatre in England specifically in the present-day Globe
Theatre and Barbican Centre in London. The section on articles finishes off
with a not very significant write-up about my theatre reviews.
The issue has
a memorial section on those who have left us last year impoverishing our
theatre world. Remembrance of Vijaya Mehta is done by Siddhartha Chakraborty,
of Teejan Bai by Sushanta Chattopadhyay, of Bhadra Basu by Siddhartha Sen, and
of Soumen Raychoudhury by Dilip Duuta. The editor has mentioned the very recent
sad demise of Pankaj Munshi in his editorial.
The cover
designed by Nilabha Chattopadhyay demands special mention. He has done a
collage of different brochure covers of different celebrated national and
international productions that ranged from Bohurupi’s legendary Rakta Karabi,
PLT’s Tiner Talowar, Namdimukh’s Paap Punya, Padatik’s Sakharam
Binder, Rangakarmee’s Kashnama, Karanth’s Hindi translated
production of Hayavadana, Theatre Academy Pune’s Begam Barve and
(?) Ghasiram Kotwal, Chorus Repertory Theate’s When We Dead Awaken
to Arayank Dacca’s (?) Raraang, and quite a few European and American
productions of legendary plays like Six Characters in Search of an
Author, La P…respectueuse, Antigone, Waiting for Godot,
Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and others. Nilabha’s concept
and designing is commendable but the lay-out needed to be spaced out a bit, so
that each of the cover-pieces could be effortlessly identified.
Before
ending, a word for the respected editor. It is rumoured that he is planning to
retire and the present issue would be his signing-off issue. He is believed to
have expressed to his near ones that it is difficult for him to acquire
advertisements that actually sustain the production and other costs of
publishing a journal of such high esteem. This predicament that he faces is
irrefutable. But on the other hand, it is also certain that SAS theatre journal
would cease to exist if Satya Bhaduri caps his pen.
Hope a
way-out would save the situation. And we would be happy to get the 40th
issue of SAS NATYAPATRA.
