Losing the orchard

After the untimely death of SM Solaiman, Theatre Art Unit came to face a very basic problem--that of choosing a script. Previously it used to be Solaiman who guided the group from selecting scripts through staging the plays. It took the group about three years to opt for Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. With the adaptation by Saidus Saklayen, theatre personality and director of Centre for Asian Theatre (CAT), Kamaluddin Nilu gave the direction of the play. The Bangla name of the play, Trinoparney Shatmanjori has been given by the celebrated poet Samudra Gupta.

The story of the play depicts the fall of a Nawab family. The fall is caused by some uncontrolled vices--extravagance, idleness and lack of foresight, reflected in the two siblings of the family--Rani Sultana and the junior Nawab Abdul Gafur.

The play starts with Rani's return from France where she went after the death of her youngest son five years ago. Extravagant by nature, Rani has an umbilical bond with the century-old Nawab-palace and its adjacent orchard of Shal trees. Rani's younger brother Abdul Gafur lives life idly and imprudently indulging in playing chess. Added to these vices, the conspiracy of Lokman, the son of the palace's caretaker, contribute to the gradual loss of the family's glory. The ancestral Shal-orchard is auctioned as the Nawabs fail to repay the mortgage.

The different characters in the play are portrayed by Rokeya Rafiq Baby, Mohammad Bari, Chandan Reza, Prashanta Halder, Smriti Sarker, Fouzia Karim, Syed Alok and others.

Partially funded by the Cultural Ministry of Bangladesh government, the show was dedicated to the memory of S M Solaiman.