Natyachakra's 33rd anniversary

A scene from the play Meemangchina

On the anniversary evening, the troupe gave a scholarship to four students two from Department of Theatre and Music, Dhaka University (DU) and two from Department of Drama and Dramatics, Jahangirnagar University (JU).

M Hamid, the founder chairman of Natyachakra, asserted, "Since 2003, we have been providing scholarships to the deserving students of theatre. The scholarship will help the young talents to develop their potential and further their commitment to theatre development in Bangladesh. Simultaneously we remember our two late colleagues-- Mujibur Rahman Shanto and Sergeant Ahad Parvez --through the scholarships."

This year, Aeysha Siddiqua and Mohammed Rafiq, the students of the Department of Drama and Dramatics of JU, are the recipients of Mujibur Rahman Shanto Smrity scholarship while Sudip Chakrabarti and Abdul Halim Paramanik, the students of Department of Theatre and Music of Dhaka University are the recipients of Sergeant Ahad Parvez Smrity scholarship.

The high point of the evening was the staging of two plays by the students of both the departments. First on the line was the Department of Theatre and Music of Dhaka University's translated playDumb Waiter by Harold Pinter.

With just two actors, Sudip Chakrabarti and Abdul Halim Paramanik, shouldering the entire production, the opportunities for repetition or caricature were aplenty, but deftly avoided by both actors.

The Dumb Waiter is a single scene play set in a windowless city room. Two hit men, working on the same job, wake up and wait for their prey. In one of the four corners of the room is a dumb waiter through whom mysterious messages are carried down from an unknown source and edible oddities are sent up by the two men all the way to the audience. There is obvious tension between two characters in the play -- Ben and Gus -- who are threatened by forces and people whose precise intentions are unknown to the audience as well as the occupants of the room.

The simple set was effective and the eerie sound effects, from the moment of entering the theatre, had the power to send a shiver down the spine and added an extra element to the audience's involvement. As a whole this production was professionally directed by Shiblee Saleh Zia.

After Dumb Waiter, Department of Drama and Dramatics of JU staged the first part of their production Meemangchina. Dr Afsar Ahmed's 'neo-ethnic theatre' Meemangchina, means a colourful cloth used for the funeral of an aristocrat Garo. Through the story of a modern Garo girl named Hrishika, Afsar, in Meemangchina, creates a parallel myth of Sheranjing, a Garo legend. A university student, Hrishika, returning to her own community performs in the role of legendary Sheranjing pala. In between the modern belief and myth, Hrishika discovers the existence of Sheranjing within herself.

Director Rashid Harun has blended narrative technique with some rituals of the ethnic Garo community in the play.

The group effort of the actors was commendable in Meemangchina.