Stage Eight Theatre Productions’ theatre festival Rendezvous includes three plays in one evening

Koli-Kotha’s To be continued, Ankur’s Bhusundir Maath, Stage Eight Theatre Productions’s Ahollya will be staged at Rendezvous
Bhusandir Math is a farce on the Divorce Laws
Bhusandir Math is a farce on the Divorce Laws

Kolkata-based theatre group, Stage Eight Theatre Productions is organising its first theatre festival this June. Rendezvous is a one-day theatre festival, which will see three different plays being performed by three different theatre groups, at the same venue, within three hours. Theatre group Koli-Kotha will stage To be continued, Ankur will stage Bhusandir Maath, and the host group will be staging Ahollya.

Directed by Subhadip Chakrabarti, Bhusandir Math is a funny portrayal of a conjugal relationship between a man and a woman, especially pertaining to marriage. The play is based on a short story written by Parashuram aka Raj Shekhar Basu and features ghosts and not humans as central characters.

A man called Shibu and a woman called Daakini, are being pursued by their spouses from three their previous births, each one of them claims marital allegiance from them.

“The script for Bhusandir Math was written by Dipankar Sarkar, who staged it during the 60s, at a time when the Divorce Laws had been recently introduced in India. The play asks a basic question, whether the laws which have been made to govern the human society, can they control our relationships too?,” says Subhadip, the director.

<em>Stage Eight Theatre Productions' Ahollya mirrors the socio-political scenario of the country in its subtext</em>
Stage Eight Theatre Productions' Ahollya mirrors the socio-political scenario of the country in its subtext

“The play, as it had been envisioned by Sarkar, was fashioned like a Jatra and involved a lot of live singing by the actors themselves, that too in different styles of singing- like Baul and tappa,” he adds.

Koli-kotha theatre group, on the other hand, will be staging the second show of a thriller called To be continued. Directed by Spandan Mukherjee, the play is based on a novel by Ruth Rendell, called A Glowing Future. The one-act play is the story about a relationship which has gone awry and features just two characters, played by Spandan Mukherjee and Anisha Chatterjee in the lead role.

<em>Bhusandir Math carries the spirit of a Jatra</em>
Bhusandir Math carries the spirit of a Jatra

“I remember hearing the story on a radio show called Sunday Suspense, called Arekti Premer Golpo. But our script is completely different and has a different, non-conclusive ending. The most challenging part was the stagecraft since the play belonged to a realistic genre where we could not show symbolic things,” says Spandan, the director.     

The last play of the evening will be Ahollya, one the most acclaimed plays of Stage Eight Theatre productions. Written by Sagnik Mukherjee and directed by Sudhosatva Majumdar, the play has been inspired from the original mythological story of Ahollya; the wife of the sage Gautama Sadhu who was seduced by Indra and cursed by her husband for her infidelity, but was redeemed by Rama.

<em>Ahollya is an adaptation of Sujoy Ghose's short film</em>
Ahollya is an adaptation of Sujoy Ghose's short film

In this play particularly, Gautam is an old man, who is extremely possessive about his young and beautiful wife. He tries to take control of her life and her actions so possessively, that he ends up harming people.

“The play is an adaptation of Sujoy Ghose’s film and the mythological foundation of Ahollya’s story remains the same. But there are certain new elements we have added, that holds a mirror to the current socio-political scenario of the country,” says Sagnik  Mukherjee.

“The most difficult part was finding the perfect Ahollya, who could do justice to the role. Writing a finely tuned script which doesn’t give away too much was another challenge we faced because if the audience didn't understand it, they might just leave,” he added.

At Gyan Manch, on June 15, 6 pm onwards

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