Session of Nationalist Theatre

Ramendu Majumdar (R) with other artistes at the programme

The session zeroed into the period from the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 to the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971. In changing the course of history, drama, particularly song, has frequently been used as a powerful vehicle for evoking patriotism. The first song of the programme was from Deenabandhu Mitra's Neel Darpan and the last song was from SM Solaiman's Talpatar Sepoy.

The celebrated couple of theatre songs, Devajit Bandyopadhyay and Riddhi Bandyopadhyay kept the audience entertained with 20 songs from different plays. The narrators were Ramendu Majumdar of Bangladesh and Bratati Bandyopadhyay. Accompanists were Debashis Saha, Subhashis De, Dipak Maity, Samaresh Karmakar and the six-year-old Riddhadev Bandyopa-dhyay. Soumendu Roy designed the light and Khaled Chowdhury did the set design.

Academy Theatre has been producing research-based programmes on themes relating to the stage and its songs since 1984. The organisation has a rich archive of books, materials, musical instruments and records, among others. It has presented programmes in USA, Canada and Bangladesh.