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The contemporary female playwright

Tete-a-tete with Samina Luthfa Nitra
26 February 2004, 18:00 PM
LIFESTYLE
Samina Luthfa Nitra
Nitra's play Tirthonkar has been well appreciated by the audience. A regular member of Shubochon Natya Shongshod, Samina Luthfa Nitra is one of the very few female stage playwrights in Bangladesh whose plays have been staged. At present only her playTirthonkaris being staged on a regular basis. After each show, she gets quite a good response from the eminent playwrights and drama critics as well. Nitra became a playwright when she along with one of her group members was translating Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Mamunur Rashid suggested to her to write a play. 'He advised me to adapt the Persian epicShahanamaand I createdTirthonkarbased on the epic adding contemporary socio-political crisis. In that sense it a crisis play.'

She adds, 'Yet, I am not satisfied with the work. I think I have the potentiality to write better stage plays.'

Her judgement on Tirthonkar is very clear. She says, 'Some critics pointed out certain areas where I could improve. They told me that I could express the messages by not being so explicit in diction. I accepted their comments and reviewed the script. In the second edition which has been published in the drama magazine Theatre, I have modified some dialogues and I think it has increased the aesthetic value of the play.'

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Besides writing, she also plays the role of Tahmina in Tirthonkar but she is more interested to establish her name as a playwright. Nitra adds, 'I am a lecturer in the department of Rural Sociology at the Mymensingh Agricultural University so I cannot give enough time to theatre. However, I think I can contribute for my group by writing plays. In case of subject matter for the play I go for the socio-political affairs which touch me. I am not yet matured enough to write quality comedies which is really tough to handle,' says Nitra.

Her favourite playwrights are Shakespeare, Rabindranath, Marlowe, Mamunur Rashid and Selim Al Deen.