The second event of the in-house drama festival.
Original : FAUST by Goethe
Concept : Tanji Kun
Theatrical adaptation : Tanji Kun, Chetona Rahman Vasha, Prajna Tasnuva Rubayyat, Shafaat Khan, Gopi Devnath, Faisal Ibne Mizan Ratul
Premier Show:
2 October, 2020, Friday
Prachyanat’s Rehearsal Floor, 278/3, New Elephant Road, Kataban, Dhaka-1205
God created man as the best of his all creations. Those who were supposed to be the best in gratitude to God, they rather turned out to be the controllers of demolition, war and wailing. Sometimes man chooses the wrong path, but at some other time he realizes his mistakes and returns to the right path – this is the only hope of the hopeful God. Mephistopheles challenges God by saying that, even the most obedient worshiper of God can be removed from the path of obedience because “man is such a creation, who can even defeat a beast in beastliness”. Being devoted to the pursuit of tremendous knowledge and the worship of God, Faust is unhappy with the lifestyle of material gluttony and selfishness of the people around him ; yet he also desires success, wealth and reputation in the darkest of his mind. Faust takes on an agreement with Mephistopheles, driven by his longing for happiness, not realizing how dreadful can the consequences of the agreement be! In the meantime, God may still be expecting that the people who have gone to the wrong path will one day return to the right path. In today’s era of capitalism and globalization, Mephistopheles in the guise of many, traps Faust, Margaret, Wagner, Martha or someone else …
The special characteristics of mankind are their cognition and sensation. The capability for thinking and the collective knowledge have given human beings dominance over other animals and nature. But cognition and sensation at the same time made man selfish. It taught man to calculate his own achievements and failures. Man does not hesitate to put others in trouble just to attain his own benefits. This conflict between principle and self- interest is the ultimate test of being human.
The German literary Goethe’s ‘Faust’ portrays this eternal conflict. The emotional conflict of his characters reminds us of how contemporary capitalist society continues to entangle us in the web of earthly pleasure and selfishness.
The method of creating this play is experimental. The responsibility of directing the whole play was not set upon one single person but all the artists equally. As a result of that, on one hand, the play has been enriched with various components and philosophies; on the other hand, group entity overlaid the individual entity, which has turned this play consistent with the conflict raised by Goethe.
Team Faust
01 October, 2020, Thursday
Tanji Kun
Chetona Rahman Vasha
Prajna Tasnuva Rubayyat
Shafaat Khan
Gopi Devnath
Faisal Ibne Mizan Ratul
Light : Md. Shawkat Hossain Sajib
Costume co-operation : Jesmin Jahan Jhuma
Props and Music co-operation : Swatee Bhadra, Yead Khorshid Eashan, Audree Ja Ameen
Play and Direction : Saiful Islam Jarnal.
Premiere Show:
18 September, 2020, Friday
Prachyanat’s Rehearsal Floor, 278/3, New Elephant Road, Kataban, Dhaka-1205
Saju works in a ready-made garments factory. When the whole country stops and is stuck in the fear of an unknown virus, the city moves towards the village. The garments’ work being paused, Saju also returns to his own village. He passes some relaxed time with his newly married wife. But the panic does not leave them. No one knows how to fight an enemy floating in the air. Nobody gets out of the home, as if death is waiting just outside the door.
In the meantime, the factories announce their re-opening. The factory workers rush towards the city by walking miles after miles. They have to come at the command of their owner because ‘the owners’ are the ones who provide the workers livelihood. Saju, along with others alike, walk towards the city as long as they can hold their breath. One of them dies, but their life and death does not really matter to the owners. They always think about their profit.
I have seen a red oleander blooming in the dunghill. I have seen a bird making a nest in the junkyard. I have seen a mother dolphin playing with her kids in the dirty water of Buriganga. I have heard that a laborer and a farmer are getting the highest honor of the country for their contribution to society. These are dreams; as dreams have no bounds, so, let’s see the ‘dream’.
We want to tell a simple story. We want to show how common people become so helpless to the inconsiderate demands of highly powerful people. We want to understand why humanity disappears in difficult moments! Do we really drive ourselves or we are being driven by others or are we being forced to be driven like this?!
Tanji Kun
Audree Ja Ameen
Soundarya Priyadarshini
Ariful Islam Rubel
Faisal Kabir Sadi
Faisal Ibne Mizan Ratul
Gopi Devnath
Assistance in Direction and Choreography : Parvin Sultana Kolly
Assistant to the Director : Faisal Kabir Sadi
Set and Props : Tanji Kun
Light : Faiz Rakib
Sound : Been-E-Amin Tutul
Costume assistance : Soundarya Priyadarshini
Stage Manager : Audree Ja Amin
Production Manager : Faisal Kabir Sadi
Story : NO ONE WRITES TO THE COLONEL
Author : Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Dramatization : Md. Shawkat Hossain Sajib
Direction : Kazi Toufikul Islam Emon
Premier Show:
25 September, 2020, Friday
Prachyanat’s Rehearsal Floor, 278/3, New Elephant Road, Kataban, Dhaka-1205
From 1899 to 1902, the name ‘War of the Thousand Days’ was added to the history of the tempestuous time in Latin America. The colonel took part in that civil war on behalf of the Liberals but the Conservatives won the war.
On 24 October 1902, an agreement was signed between the two opponents. The colonel was present when the agreement was signed; he was promised there that he would get his pension which would allow him to live the last days of his life solvently. The colonel and his sick wife had been waiting for the pension ever since. A rooster that belonged to their son Augustin turns out to be the third feeding-mouth of the family. Augustine was the only breadwinner in the family of the old colonel and his sick wife, before he was shot dead. He had a hobby of cock-fighting. He went out with his rooster to win; he had a dream of being rich. But he died before his rooster could win for him.
Since then, this rooster has been the only asset left by the Colonel’s son. Every Friday he goes to the post office to find out if there is any letter in his name. But every time the postmaster states, ‘there is no one to write to the colonel’. The old colonel carries the solitude of life on his shoulders, but he still can’t give up hope. After the death of his son, all that was left for selling at home was sold one by one. Now, nobody wants to buy the old-fashioned watch he has on his account left for selling. Sometimes, the colonel’s wife collects stones and boils them in the water to hide their poverty to the neighbors. It seems like the whole universe is stuck in a strange web of destiny, waiting to break down at any moment. Having no food at home, the wife demands to sell Augustin’s rooster with a heavy heart. The Colonel has a bargain of 900 pesos for the rooster. But, his mind does not approve of it. He hopes his pension will definitely come. The colonel’s conversation with his lawyer reveals the bureaucratic complexities of his pension retention. The solution of the old colonel’s pension may be stuck in one table after wandering from this table to that table, from this ministry to that ministry. Many of the colonel’s fellow-soldiers have already died waiting, trapped in the same bureaucratic complication for their pension. The Colonel being promoted at a very young age, has been waiting longer . The colonel waits just for a letter, where there will be the money of his pension.
A suffocating period is going on. Those who broke their bones for the republic – hoping to stay well, to keep well are the ones suffering from the Government’s oppressions, repressions and tortures. Like in the story, after the end of the civil war, the waiting for the Colonel is getting longer and longer. His fellow soldiers are dying waiting for a letter of pension. Yet, there is no solution to it. Natural death is also like a celebration here. Colonels’ strong young son was murdered in front of his own eyes. His wife waits for death day after day, starving, having no treatment for her sickness . Where remains the country’s powerful leaders at that time? The Colonel wants to sell the rooster he has at home, the fighting rooster that belonged to his son, but he hesitates, thinking of the people in the town who want to make money from the rooster winning a cock-fight. He persuades his wife that nobody dies from two months of starvation, believing the rooster would win and bring them money. If needed, he says, they would survive by eating stool, still he would take this rooster to the battlefield. Because, the colonel knows that this rooster is not the one who would be defeated.
He believes, like everyone else in the city, that his fifty years of waiting is coming to an end . Good days are coming, it will come for sure. Like the colonel, I also wish to believe that the good days will come and I wish to share this belief with everyone.
With the Colonel, we wait along. The letter will come, it must come.
Kazi Toufikul Islam Emon
24 October, 2020, Thursday
Kazi Toufikul Islam Emon
Prajna Tasnuva Rubayyat
Set and Light : Md. Shawkat Hossain Sajib
Music : Neel Kamrul
Video art making : Shahriar Shaon
Costume and Props : Prajna Tasnuva Rubayyat
Costume and Props Assistant : Ariful Islam Rubel
Production Manager : Shamim Hossain Shrabon
Play : Harold Pinter
Translation : Rabiul Alam
Direction : Md. Shawkat Hossain Sajib
Premier Show:
07 November, 2014, Friday
Prachyanat’s Rehearsal Floor, 278/3, New Elephant Road, Kataban, Dhaka-1205
Two professional murderers, Ben and Gus, are waiting for the command of their next mission in a basement room. Gus embarrasses senior Ben by asking one question after another, and Ben hides himself behind the pages of a newspaper and tries to avoid all of his colleagues’ questions. In the midst of their words they keep getting ready for their work. Argument arises between them about the form of their work and also about the phrases like ‘light the kettle’ and ‘put on the kettle’ to make tea. Gus continues to ask harsh questions, Ben gets annoyed and the tension increases. At that time, the dumb waiter comes down from above with some order of food in it. Then, it returns quickly upstairs, and comes down with the foods ordered. The tension continues to rise. By this time, Gus discovers a talking tube. They make contact with someone above talking through the tube. Willingly or unwillingly, they keep obeying the rational or irrational orders of the person they make contact with.
We, all the dumb waiters, are always busy in following the orders of all the masters of the world. That is why; we see the uprising of ISS militants on one side and Malala receiving the Nobel Prize on the other. Just like Ben, a character in this play, obeying the order is life, not questioning. Those who ask questions like Gus, the masters of today’s world turn out to be doubtful about their solidarity. They don’t have any other options but to eliminate them. We have been interacting one-way through the talking tube. While playing the drama, we just have to wait. Whose turn is it tonight?
Md. Shawkat Hossain Sajib
October,2014
Farhad Ahmed Shamim
Arif Reza Khan
Faisal Ibne Mizan Ratul
Set and Music : ABS Xem
Choreography : Proddut Kumar Ghosh
Light : Been-E-Amin Tutul
Costume : Arif Reza Khan
Props : Md. Farhad Ahmed Shamim
Leaflet, Poster and Ticket : Arif Reza Khan
Production Manager : Arif Reza Khan
Play : Edward Albee
Translation : Ashfakul Ashekin
Direction : Kazi Toufikul Islam Emon
Premiere Show:
30 November, 2018, Friday
Prachyanat’s Rehearsal Floor, 278/3, New Elephant Road, Kataban, Dhaka-1205
The whole incident of The Zoo Story takes place on a Sunday afternoon, at a bench in the New York Central Park. Peter, who is involved in publication work is a higher middle class person. He has a wife, two daughters and two cats. This man in his 40s sits on the bench in the park and reads a book. Jerry, whose appearance indicates that he is much younger than Peter, and has a very tardy get-up, sits beside him and tells him that he has come from the zoo. Peter does not respond, but Jerry continues to talk to him about unimportant matters. He admits that he is alone and is desperate to make human contact. Shortly after, Jerry becomes very annoying and starts to act like a child which hampers Peter’s attention to the reading. Jerry keeps chatting. He tells Peter that smoking cigarettes may induce cancer, dogs are better as pets than cats because having cats is feminine behaviour etc. Jerry keeps asking Peter about his personal life and interests. At one point, Peter starts to conversate with Jerry and the story takes a new turn.
When society sees something from one side, then the actual image does not come to our concern. The arranged pictures provide us with the wrong direction. We can’t get the fact. When the animals in the zoo see us from their side, they see our smile, see us clapping and may think, “What a happy family!” They might think, how peaceful our lives are! When we see the caged animal from our side, we think, “How fine a life it has! It does not have to do any job; it is just eating and sleeping!” But is it really the fact? This kind of one sided view can create a chronic agony in our lives – and it does. In 1950, American civilization was facing a revolution. The Zoo Story is an exploration, related to our own selves and others. In my investigation as director, the play is an analysis of our position in this class-oriented society, an inquiry of our own existence and a connection created with nature.
Kazi Toufikul Islam Emon
Ahmaad Saki
Set : Tanji Kun
Light : Mukhlesur Rahman
Music : Rifat Ahmed Nobel
Costume and Props : Kazi Toufikul Islam Emon
Production Manager : Shrabon Shamim
278/3, Kataban Dhal, New Elephant Road, Dhaka 1205.
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