Lectures & Presentations

Political Theatre as a Civil Right

 19 February, Saturday

At Shilpakala Academy rehearsal Room-1, a lecture-presentation session was held. Among many different things I focused on the following things:

1. Why Theatre is different today from the theatre before the Industrial Revolution
2. Why communal-life is no longer possible in a Globalized world where products and labours constantly move from place to place. 
3. Without a strong Community-bonding, powerful theatre cannot take place. 
4.  We discussed what happens when a poet or a dramatist makes Art out of Real-life stories.
5. Why Theatre is still a strong medium. Space-time proximity of theatre-makers and audience is the secret of Theatre's powerful artistic sensibility.
6. Two books were referred to - "শেক্সপিয়রের সমাজচেতনা" [Link] এবং "বিষয় চলচ্চিত্র" [Link]. Both books are available online from = amarboi.com 
7. We watched clippings from "Shakespeare in Love", "Macbeth", "Othello" and "Hamlet."
8. Cultural appropriation of Shakespeare in films such as "Last Lear" and "Haider." Students were also requested to watch the only Bengali film that includes a long performance of a Shakespearean play - the name of the film being "সপ্তপদী".
9. A comparative discussion of Rituporno's film "Chitrangoda" and Jibonando's poem "আট বছর আগে একদিন". 5-6 students took part in the discussion while the whole class was fully attentive about the contend of our debate and discussion. 
10. Participants cited out names of Bengali films that they consider significant experiment in film history. Some of the names mentioned - অযান্ত্রিক, পথের পাঁচালি, সীমাবদ্ধ, অরণ্যের দিনরাত্রি, হার্বার্ট। However, I intend to include a few more titles for careful watching.  
11. Macbeth's dialogue "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" explained with meaning.
12. One thing I forgot to mention - the three books by Tanvir Mokammel. In the first book he sheds lights on important aspect of Shakespeare as a political artist. Title of the book - বাঙ্গালির মেধা ও অন্যান্য প্রবন্ধ (2017). The other two books I should have mentioned are: (1) চলচ্চিত্র নন্দনতত্ত্ব ও বারোজন ডিরেক্টর; (2) চলচ্চিত্রকথা।