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On December 4, Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia, inaugurated the National Theatre complex at the Shilpakala Academy. State Minister for Cultural Affairs, Selima Rahman was present as the Chairperson. The National Theatre is the realization of a dream which is over 50 years old. Since partition in 1947, there has been a demand for a theatre in Dhaka, but work did not begin until 1995. Finally, on December 3, 2003, the Experimental Theatre was inaugurated, and this year, exactly a year later, the whole complex was opened to the public.
   With a capacity of 750 seats in the theatre hall and 300 in the experimental theatre hall, future plans for the project include a theatre museum, a library, seminar hall, studio theatre, an audio-video lab, a photography lab and a costume, set and props stores. While the larger theatre hall was demanded in order to have a regular venue for the presentation of plays, the experimental theatre hall was built in order to give directors and script writers free rein. The stage here is movable and allows the audience to be seated all around the stage, to the sides of it or, in the traditional arrangement, facing it. The lighting and sound equipment can be moved around to accommodate the different settings.
   The Theatre Festival 2004 was held in the week before the inauguration of the National Theatre, and seemed to prove just how useful the newly built theatre halls would be to the local theatre scene. Amid dim lighting and drum rolls, the inauguration of the Theatre Festival had a ceremonious touch to it as if trying to impress the audience that this was a new beginning for Bangladeshi theatre. Of course, major theatre festivals have already been held at the Experimental Theatre, however, the Theatre Festival’s timing amid a variety of important dates lent it some added importance.
   The day of the opening of the Festival was also the 79th birthday of renowned playwright Munier Chowdhury. His contribution to theatre in Bangladesh, principally his play Kabar (The Grave), and his martyrdom during the independence war have catapulted him to the status of a near legend. The theatrical group, Theatre, has thus been given out the Munier Chowdhury Honorary award, every year, beginning in 1989, to theatre personalities for lifetime achievements. On the day, educationist Sardar Fazlul Karim and Professor Kabir Chowdhury remembered him, and expressed their regret that he could not be there for the theatre movement in independent Bangladesh. In addition, Theatre also gave out the Mohammad Zakaria Memorial Award, which generally goes to younger theatre personalities. The awards went to prominent actor, director and playwright Aly Zaker, and playwright and director Masum Reza, respectively.
   Gender Inequality
   Two days before the Festival, on November 25, was the United Nations’ “International Day for the elimination of violence against women”, which possibly inspired quite a few of the theatre groups to present plays on gender issues. Jalbalika, Madhobi, Mukti, and to a certain extent Sampannaiya, all centre their stories around female characters who are at odds with the society around them, bringing to light a range of problems in different settings.
   The inauguration presentation was Theatre’s production Mukti. Based on American playwright Lee blessing’s “Independence”, it looked at the concepts of freedom and independence through the lives of four women whose independence makes it impossible for them to live together. While the play’s evaluation is undoubtedly universal for both men and women, there is significance to the fact that all the characters are women. The conflict between family and independence is one which has accompanied women throughout their struggle for independence. The weak male characters portrayed in their conversations seemed to signify men’s distance from such issues.
   Jalbalika took a completely different approach, moving from the world of the emancipated woman into the village, where women themselves often enforce female gender roles. Set in a small village, Jalbalika revolves around baul Alek Ali’ songs lead the village’s boats to victory every year, earning him the name Jaibaul. His daughter, Jholok, has inherited his gift to sing, and on discovering this Jaibaul demands that she sing in the upcoming boat race. Unwilling to give up the baul whose singing leads them to sure victory, the villagers oppose his idea. In particular it is Jholok’s mother who opposes this dream and questions how a girl could possibly sing in a boat race. The play attempts to bring out how deep our prejudices actually run and Jaibaul, who seemed an emancipated man, chooses his infant son over his gifted daughter, when their lives are in danger.
   Set under similar circumstances, Sampannaiya is set in a fishing village in Chittagong, where a young girl, trying to escape a marriage with an older man, runs away with two fishermen in their boat. Unfortunately, the two men work for her groom and a struggle ensues between the socially acceptable choice of marrying the older man and the unacceptable choice ofrunning away with the young fisherman, Nochor, whom she loves. Ultimately, however, she is not the master of her destiny, and it is Nochor who must rescue her and carry her away on his boat.
   Madhobi, based on a story from the Mahabharata, presents Madhobi, a beautiful girl, who is used by her father, lover and other men, to further their own goals, and represents the epitome of the objectified woman. In the play Madhobi is given away by her father to give proof of his generosity and in order to help a young man, Galob, fulfill his promise to his guru. In order to bring 800 ashwamedhi horses to Galob’s guru, Madhobi lives for a year with three different kings, bearing them sons. Ultimately, she is rejected by Galob whom she loves. What is most significant is that the story is over 5000 years old, and shows how little values have changed and the solution presented is one of independence and distance from men. In the absence of any more constructive solutions, the festival’s overall message seemed to be just that: “live and let live, and if they won’t let you live move away”. The festival especially successfully brought out the arbitrary, authoritarian views that communities with gender prejudices have.
   Beyond gender issues the plays at the seven-day festival also explored a range of social issues, exploring social hierarchies and challenging accepted beliefs. Rabindranath Tagore’s Raktakarabi performed to a full house on the second last day of the seven-day festival. Exploring a fictitious mining colony, it sets up an analogy for modern society, in which everyone works relentlessly for riches, which ultimately leave them unhappy. Into the scenario enters Nandini, a carefree girl, with whose playful energy everyone falls in love. She spends her day looking beautiful, decorating herself with red oleanders (Raktakarabi) and singing. While everyone loves her, she only loves Ranjan a youth whose coming will herald change and happiness for the people of the town.
   Raaraang followed the struggle of the Santals for their land. Centred on the life of Alfred Soren, who was killed in August 2000, it presented a view of the struggle from the Santal perspective. Presenting the representatives of civilizartion, a missionary, a bureaucrat, a policeman, a lawyer and a judge, as completely absurd characters, it gives an unclouded view of a corrupt society. Prachya turned around the Manasa myth, and explored the story of a man, whose bride is bitten by a snake on their wedding night. Through his journey for revenge on the snake, the husband questioned whether people we see as evil can actually act outside their nature.
   “Diversity in Design”
   Calling itself “Diversity in Design”, the Theatre Festival tried to present a variety of different styles and approaches. Only two plays, however, made use of the experimental theatre hall’s ability to transform according to the director’s wishes. Raaraang moved used a large open space in the middle, with the audience seated around it. Using dim lighting it successfully conveyed the atmosphere of a rural setting. Likewise, Prachya used a large stage in the centre with the audience seated on two sides. Holes in the stage allowed the actors to disappear “underground” as they searched for the snake. While the other plays did not redesign the stage for their plays, they did keep regular viewers at the festival guessing about how the theatre hall would look each day.
   However, the festival’s real diversity came in the different structures of the plays presented. Mukti, the most western of the plays, concentrated strongly on the inner life of characters and the interplay between them. It brought more complex emotions such as jealousy, the feeling of neglect and the inability to compromise. In direct contrast, Raaraang the next day, moved completely away from particular characters and concentrated on the group identity of the Santals. Here characters represented Santals in general over a span of 30 years, causing them to lose their individuality. Only Alfred Soren, stood out as a particular person, and in doing so became a hero. It is interesting to note, that his character was built up without him making any prominent appearances. Other characters talking about him and his deeds allowed him to be shaped into a flawless hero, giving him the qualities of a messiah.
   Similarly, in Raktakarabi, the characters are more symbolic of larger groups than individuals in themselves. Representing the hierarchies of society and the grovelling people harvesting riches for those more powerful than them, the characters served to contrast against Nandini, the symbol of carefree unstoppable energy. Her lover Ranjan, too, is a messiah who will come and save the community from its oppressors. As with Soren in Raaraang, he too is killed before being able to help his people.
   Jalbalika and Sampannaiya, while both looking at social hierarchies and how women are treated in society, did so in remarkably different ways. While the events in Sampannaiya were defined almost solely by the actions of the characters, Jalbalika used a series of ‘acts of god’ to move along its storyline, which ultimately ended in the humbling of its central character Jaibaul. Jalbalika thus had the characteristics of a classical tragedy in which the characters, even when presented with free choices, cannot escape their fates. Sampannaiya on the other hand, allowed its characters the freedom to shape their lives, and so sent the message that it is our choices that define our existential conditions, and that we are able to turn around our lives at any moment.
   The Theatre Festival 2004, on the whole presented some heavy fare, which will probably stimulate some deep thinking. Sadly, it did not balance its serious subject matters, with an equal amount of comedy. The comic relief provided in some of the plays did not do enough to lighten the mood of the festival as a whole. While some characters certainly had the audiences splitting their sides in laughter, the overall atmosphere was sombre, somewhat negative, as audience after audience was challenged to think about its actions. Future Theatre Festivals would perhaps do well to choose a selection of plays which stimulate thought as well as provide slightly lighter entertainment.