Bangladeshi theatre goes overseas

Mamunur Rashid (C) and co-actors in Che-er Cycle (Left) and Manush

In this connection, a six-member team, including Mamunur Rashid, Tushar Khan, Faiz Zahir, Tamalika Karmakar, Chanchal Chowdhury and Rublee Chowdhury, went to Australia. Both of the plays are written and directed by Mamunur Rashid and Faiz Zahir respectively.

The troupe staged one show each of Manush and Che-er Cycle in Canberra and Melbourne and two shows of each of the plays in Sydney amongst the Bengali community living in Australia. Said Rashid, "We received a tremendous response from the viewers. Though Manush deals with a serious issue--a conflict ridden society--the presentation is comical. That's why we were confident about the success of this light play amongst the viewers who live in hectic metros in Australia.

"However, we had doubts about the response to our current production, Che-er Cycle, as the play deals with a serious issue--the adverse impact of globalisation. Nevertheless it is encouraging that both the plays have gone down well with the audience. Many Bengalis turned up for entertainment, while a sizeable Australian audience was also present."

On the limitations faced by the group, Rashid said, "Manush is not our regular production. We remade the production for the trip. And the problem we faced during staging the play was that in case of the earlier version of the play, six artists performed 10 characters, but all of these artists except me went there. However, in Australia, four artistes--Tushar Khan, Tamalika, Chanchal Chowdhury and I-- handled all of the characters. Chanchal Chowdhury, Rublee and I performed in Che-er Cycle.

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Detailing the prospects for theatre in Australia, Rashid asserted that many Bangladeshi celebrities participate in cultural programmes for the Bengali communities living in affluent countries such UK, USA and others, but few theatre productions go to there. To quote him, "The head of Ausban, Golam Mostafa, an ex-theatre activist living in Australia, was the promoter of the current trip. That may explain his interest in taking theatre overseas for the entertainment of the expatriates. However, more such programmes should be organised along with the solo entertaining programmes performed by the celebrities. This will help introduce professionalism in theatre; it will also encourage theatre activists confronted by crass commercialism in the entertainment business in Bangladesh."