The curtain will fall on the weeklong theatre festival organised by Dhaka Padatik by staging Loko Natyadal’s (Siddeswari) highly praiseworthy production ‘Konjush’  today at the National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA), Segun Bagicha in the capital.

To celebrate the 38th founding anniversary, Dhaka Padatik, one of the most prominent theatre troupes in the country, has arranged the weeklong theatre festival on the BSA premises.

Based on playwright Molière’s world famous satirical comedy, ‘The Miser’, ‘Konjush’ (in Bengali) has been adapted and dramatised by Tariq Anam Khan while it is directed by Liaquat Ali Lucky.

Through situational satire, humour and crude slapstick, ‘Konjush’ weaves the story of two families living in Old Dhaka. The story of miser Haider Ali brings out some hidden negative tendencies of the elite people in a comic way. To make the play enjoyable, Tariq Anam used the typical Dhakaia dialect (a mixture of Bangla and Urdu).

The story of the play goes forward sketching a sixty-year-old, very miserly person, Haider Ali. He is reluctant to spend bucks even for his own son Kazim and daughter Laili and hids a large sum of money in a pot in his garden. Kazim is in love with neighbour Marjina, while Laili has a relationship with Bodiuzzaman, son of Haider’s friend Aslam Beg.

The plot of the play comes to a climax when Haider Ali himself plans to marry Marjina. The festival, inaugurated on March 9, hosted both local and international troupes. Three local and two Kolakata-based troupe along with host troupe staged their plays during the festival.  l