Recipients of awards with organisers at the prize giving ceremony on Friday at Shilpakala Academy.— Snigdha Zaman.

The weeklong Selim Al Deen theatre festival, organised marking 63rd birth anniversary of the trendsetter playwright and theoretician Selim Al Deen, ended with staging of two plays and an award giving ceremony on Friday at Bangladesh Shilapakala Academy.
Kolkata based troupe Tritio Sutra staged Tagore classic Bisarjan at the National Theatre Hall while local troupe Samay Sanskritik Goshthi staged Shesh Sanglap at the Experimental Theatre Hall in the evening.
As part of the festival, Hasan Arif presented a recitation programme, Amar Rabindranath, at the Studio Theatre Hall of the academy on the concluding day of the festival.
The organisers also honoured four theatre activists conferring with Mir Maqsud-Us-Salehin-Bazlul Karim Sammanona and Faozia Yesmin Shibley Padak for the year 2010 and 2012.
The sixth edition of the Selim Al Deen theatre festival, jointly organised by Selim Al Deen Foundation in association with Bangladesh Gram Theatre and Dhaka Theatre, featured 14 theatre productions staged by 13 troupes including two Kolakata based groups.
The concluding day programme began with the award handing over ceremony at the open space adjacent to the National Theatre Hall.
Theatre personality Nasiruddin Yousuff, also the convener of the festival committee, declared the names of the winners.
Mir Maqsud-Us-Salehin-Bazlul Karim Sammanona 2010 was conferred to the late theatre activist Nazma Anwar for her contribution to the theatre movement of the country until her death in 2004. Noted theatre artiste Shimul Yousuf handed over the crest and flower to  Nazma Anwar’s daughter Ishrat Nishat.
 Faozia Yasmin Shibley Padak 2010 went to Babul Biswas, a collector of documents and photographs of theatre productions. Actor Shahiduzzaman Selim handed over a crest and token money to Babul Biswas.
Mir Maqsud-Us-Salehin-Bazlul Karim Sammanona 2012 was conferred to seasoned actor Masud Ali Khan for his contribution as a founding member of Drama Circle in 1956, a pioneering  theatre troupe of the country.
Dhaka Theatre activist Apurbo Majumder handed over the award to Masud ali Khan Khan, who, however, retired from theatre in 1978.
Dhaka theatre actress Rosey Siddique handed over Faozia Yasmin Shibley Padak 2012 to talented theatre activist Tropa Majumdar as recognition for her acting and direction.
Following the award giving ceremony, Kolkata based troupe Tritio Sutra staged Tagore’s play Bisarjan, directed by Suman Mukhopadhyay.
Set against the backdrop of a conflict between the King of Tripura Gavindamanikya and the priest following the king’s decision of doing away with the tradition of sacrificing animals for satisfaction of God, Tagore classic delivers the message that any extreme creed of any kind may lead to uncontrolled violence devoid of any logical development.   
Smay Sanskritik Goshthi, on the other hand, staged Shesh Sanglap, an adaptation of noted Egyptian playwright Tewfiq al-Hakim’s The Sultan’s Dilemma by Syed Jamil Ahmed and M Saiful Alam.
 Set against the medieval period, Shesh Sanglap centers on a Mamluk sultan, who at the height of his power learns that he was not born to the immediate past sultan. He was brought up as a slave child, adopted by the late sultan and raised as a prince. However, during death his foster father never freed him from his bondage.
The law of the state, however, states that a slave can never rule over free men.
Directed by Aktaruzzaman, the play, however, delivers the message that people even in the contemporary world are also affected by such anti-humane laws.