‘Chitrangada’ and ‘Tringsha Shatabdi’—two much-acclaimed productions by Bangladesh’s popular theatre troupe Swapnadal have been invited to an international theatre and folk festival titled ‘Rong Rajasthan 2016’ in Rajasthan, India. Swapnadal’s play ‘Tringsha Shatabdi’ will be staged at famous Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur, Rajasthan on February 28, while ‘Chitrangada’ will be brought to the stage on February 29. A 25-member troupe will start for Rajasthan on February 24 to participate in the upcoming festival. ‘Chitrangada’ is the 11th production of Swapnadal, written by Nobel Laureate Poet Rabindranath Tagore and directed by Zahid Repon. The script of the play is an adaptation of a tale in the great eastern epic ‘Mahabharata’, but with new and modern interpretations. The story of ‘Chitrangada’ is centred around the mythological hero Arjuna and the princess of Manipur, Chitrangada, who was brought up as a son by her father and trained up as a warrior. But being acquainted with Arjuna, Chitrangada falls in love with him. Watching her so-called external glamourless appearance, Arjuna refuses her love. Humiliated and brokenhearted, Chitrangada appeals to the God of Love Madana and God of Youth Bashanta for beautifying herself for only one day! But impressed with her prayer, they bless her with a new formation, granting her with a beautiful appearance for a year. After that, Chitrangada appears before Arjuna in full glamour of new-found dazzling beauty and Arjuna simply falls in love. But after achieving Arjuna’s admiration and love, Chitrangada enters into a new inner-conflict that which is important to a man or woman- the temporary external glamour or the truth of the soul? And after many incidents, at last both of them realize that the second one is the greatest sublime and also the most permanent for mankind.
Produced by a grant from the Cultural Affairs Ministry of Bangladesh to mark the 150th birth anniversary (2011) of the greatest playwright and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore, Swapnadal’s ‘Chitrangada’ is going to be staged outside of the country for the first time.
On the other hand, the story of ‘Tringsha Shatabdi’ is based on the destruction of the two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which lead to the surrender of Japan and was meant to be the end of the war to end all wars, however, the world has seen many more wars since. The production incorporates the terrible experiences of wars on people, including the Liberation War of Bangladesh, as well as the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. And through a replicated military exercise, the narrator has depicted the nuclear activities by the global superpowers. During a transformation, the narrator of the play becomes a character, namely Suman, who wants the trial of war criminals acted against the country’s Liberation War during 1971. l