Imam Hossain
Dhamer Gaan performance Housher Behani Rongila Behai. Sohel Mamun
Dhamer Gaan performance Housher Behani Rongila Behai. Sohel Mamun
 The hot weather nowadays may make you reluctant to go out and explore the city, but if you are an ardent theatre lover, you will be seen enjoying ITI (International Theatre Institute) theatre festival which is now going on in full swing at three venues of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) at Segun Bagicha in Dhaka.

On the second day of the festival, Monday evening, theatre enthusiasts, avoiding scorching heat of summer, relished different tastes of performing arts, including dance drama, stage play and Dhamer Gaan, a folk musical play form of Thakurgaon.

With the slogan Asiar Natak: Nataker Asia, the weeklong international theatre festival titled International Theatre Festival, Seminar and Workshop features a total of 25 plays by 21 troupes from home and abroad.

The audience, who thronged the National Theatre Main Hall of BSA, experienced the eternal theme of unrequited love which had been flamboyantly portrayed through dance drama Mayar Khela written by Nobel Laureate Poet Rabindranath Tagore in 1886 as a musical play (Geeti Natya).

Charismatic set design, use of lights illustriously, aerial dance and music in operatic style— all create an ambiance to watch. Like Shadhona’s other productions, Mayar Khela is an extravagant one which is more than a dance drama; it could be considered a dance-opera.

Adapted the musical play into a dance-drama, Mayar Khela (Maze of Illusions) which is a blend of Tagore songs, narratives and classical dances, transports us to a fantasy world where dream maidens spin illusions in the minds of men.

It is the story of a man, Amar, who is in love with Shanta. But due to a mysterious boredom that he experiences, he decides to see what the world has to offer first.

Amar meets a lively Pramada, who is a metaphor for fleeting pleasures but frustrates as she is apparently indifferent to him. Pramada sees love as an art and delightful while Shanta stands for sacrifice.

Out of frustration, Amar gradually starts getting back to his first love. But, the story reaches its climax, when Pramada realises that she is also in love with Amar.

This play is a love triangle, in which passion and eternal commitment collide, overflow and generate a new-fangled mesmerising horizons of charm and delight.

For the audience of Studio Theatre Hall, it was a rare evening to come across—Dhamer Gaan— such a traditional art form which is struggling hard to survive its existence. Rooted in the history of Thakurgaon, Dhamer Gaan is a kind of pala (traditional narrative play form) which has been practising orally from generation after generation. But, now only a handful people are left to keep its glory erected by practising and playing the art form.

Sri Dharani Chandra Barman is among those of few who with his troupe Mitali Natya Gosthi, is playing a pioneering role in carrying Dhamer Gaan’s journey on.

The troupe led by Barman presented Housher Behani Rongila Behai through Damer Gaan, a folk-tale of traditional relations in a family, is crafted in the dialect and accent of Thakurgaon.

“For its unique language, Dhamer Gaan is often considered as Khash Gaan,” informed Barman.

Chittagong-based theatre troupe Ganayan Natya Sampraday brought a show of its production Muktadhara, another Tagore play, at the Experimental Theatre Hall of BSA.

Directed by Kuntal Barua, the play is the Nobel laureate poet’s observation on the human greed and exploitation generated by machine and how this greed is linked to imperialism.

In the play, although there is appreciation of the boons of the machine, Tagore reminds us that it is arrogance and the misuse of machine that leads to the sufferings of man.

Today, three plays—Desh Natak’s Arikkhita at National Theatre Main Hall, Dhaka Padatik’s Apod at Experimental Theatre Hall and Universal Theatre’s Mahatma at Studio Theatre Hall—will be staged simultaneously.

The festival, which opens every day at 7:00pm, concludes on 3 June.