Tagore’s timeless play Muktadhara was staged by-Chittagong

Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore’s timeless play Muktadhara was staged by Chittagong based troupe Ganayan Natyasampraday at the Experimental Theatre hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on Monday.

Set against the backdrop of an imaginary village full of natural resources named Shivatari, Tagore’s symbolic play features sufferings of the poor people of the village after installing a dam by the ruler of neighboring village, which has been interpreted as Tagore's nationalist critique of colonial exploitation.

The play, directed by Kuntal Barua, was spontaneously presented by the troupe members, who sometimes even get closer to the audience to give the universal message of the tendency of depriving the weaker neighbouring country by the dominating one in question of trans-boundary river water sharing.

The actors gave a realistically depiction of tyranny onstage. Shahid Uddin Ahmed in the role of the royal engineer Bibhuti, who designs a machine to control river water flow, performed really well.

And the man-made ‘huge’ machine to control river water had been symbolically portrayed through dark and shadow effects on the cyclorama.