Popular theatre troupe Prachyanat will stage its much-acclaimed production ‘Koinna’ at National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA), Segun Bagicha in the capital.
Written by Murad Khan and directed by Azad Abul Kalam, the play tells the story of Koinna Peer, a holly woman of the greater Sylhet region. One day Koinna Peer left, sacrificing himself in the name of soulful wisdom. But the legend continues that he left his companion Bohurupi in a local pond as a fish.
Naior Ali and Delbar Ali – two brothers – considered to be the descendants of Koinna Peer and the keepers of Now dwell in the same house as that of Koinna Peer. The villagers have now become the disciples of Naior Ali. Widower Naior Ali, intoxicated in the love of the almighty, spends engrossing hours talking to Bohurupi in his quest to acquire self-knowledge.
This family raised Mesab, a destitute child and a friend of Delbar Ali. He instigates Delbar to marry a girl of his native village to whom he himself was attracted and tried to marry in the past. Sexually impotent and homosexual catamite by nature, Delbar reluctantly assents to his proposal after Mesab assured him that a local remedy from Moulavi Shahebzada would surely cure him. Koinna enters Kalaruka as a bride.
Moulavi Shahebzada, another religious leader of an adjacent village, believes in implementing Islam through methods other than that of Naior Ali. He desires to expand his supremacy on Kalaruka across the Chang canal.
Conflict ignites, as Mesab becomes the right hand of Shahebzada despite being an insider to the Koinna Peer household. Meanwhile, Koinna, a lonesome soul seeks compassion in the company of Bahurupi after being deprived of the instinctive pleasure of being a woman. She is somehow bonded with Naior on the inside. The play reaches its climax as Koinna becomes pregnant and friction becomes inevitable between the two sides. Naior Ali decides to follow the path of Koinna Peer and sacrifice his life in the name of divinity. Shahebzada seeks supremacy, Mesab seeks power, Koinna seeks Bahurupi and Naior seeks peace of his own soul in a tranquil manner.
Koinna in her spiritual solitude, makes a bond with her unborn child and looks ahead for a promising future.
