Today marks the World Mime Day and 96th birth anniversary of the world famous mime artiste Marcel Marceau. To mark the occasion, theatre troupe Swapnadal will stage a special show of its mimodrama ‘Jadur Pradip’ today at 7pm at the Studio Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) in Segun Bagicha of the capital.

Before staging the play, a documentary on mime artiste Marcel Marceau will be screened. Born on March 22, 1923 in Strasbourg, France, Marcel Marceau became one of the most famous mime artistes in the world. In 2011, United Nations announced the day as World Mime Day.

A ‘mimodrama’, as the troupe calls it, ‘Jadur Pradip’ is based on the overly familiar fairy tale ‘Aladdin and the Magic Lamp’. The play has been adapted and directed by Zahid Repon. The central message of the production is the triumph of good over evil.

The story of the ‘Jadue Prodip’ is like this: A Magician comes to know by using his evil power that there is a magic lamp far away in a mountain and capturing that lamp will enable the conquer of the whole world. But only one person named Aladin, the son of a poor and helpless mother will be able to bring out that magic lamp from the mountain. The Magician makes friendship with Aladin in disguise and starts for conquering the lamp with him. The magician had the intention to captivate Aladin in the mountain cave after conquering the lamp. But being suspicious, Aladin disagrees to hand over the lamp before coming out of the cave. Even after a lot of alluring and threatening Aladin remains rigid and hence the magician angrily closes down the cave entrance keeping Aladin with the lamp inside and caves.

But the story is not concluded here, more greed for power, hypocrisy, intrigue, fight for self-interest, vengeance, etc. and in parallel portray positivity, love and good thoughts and over everything the imperishable truth is established in the play.

Swapnadal wants to provide the audience an opportunity to enjoy pantomime - a performing art form that is yet to catch on in our country and also explore the potential of mimodrama here. Through metaphors, the play addresses both negative and positive human characteristics and finally establishes the supremacy of love and righteousness. The cast includes Sajida Islam Parul, Asif Istiar, Hasan Rezaul, Monir Hossain, Al Amin, Shonali Rahman Julie, Zahid Ripon and others.