Swapnadal to stage ‘Chitrangada’ today

Theatre troupe Swapnadal, will stage its much-acclaimed production ‘Chitrangada’, today at the Experimental Theatre of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy at Segun Bagicha in the capital.

Starting at 7:00pm, this will be a special show of Swapnadal Production which aims to aid flood-victims.

Ticket for the show will cost 100, 200, and 300 taka based on sitting arrangement and there will be an option for personal donation for the flood victims.

‘Chitrangada’ is the 11th production of Swapnadal, written by Rabindranath Tagore and directed by Zahid Repon.

The script of the play is an adaptation of a tale in the great eastern epic ‘Mahabharata’, but with new and modern interpretations. Rabindranath wrote the play in two different forms or versions.

In 1892, when he was only 31 years old, he wrote ‘Chitrangada’ in poetic drama (Kabyanatya) form. But 44 years later, in 1936, he wrote it in dance drama (Nrityanatya) form based on the same story.

Swapnadal has prepared the production ‘Chitrangada’ with the poetic drama version. It may be mentioned that dance drama form of ‘Chitrangada’ is well known, because it has been performed by a good number of organisations. On the other side, the poetic drama version of ‘Chitrangada’ has not been staged regularly in modern stage before Swapnadal.

The staging of the play has contribution of Sonali, Juena, Shishir, Shyamal, Arko, Rana, Jebu, Happy, Samad, Usha, Hasan, Ali, Bipul, Nisarg, Sumaiya, Masud, Sukumar, Titu, Bimal, Anindya and others.

Swapnadal already completed 90 successful staging of ‘Chitrangada’ in Bangladesh and India. Recently this play has been selected to perform in India’s great international theatre festival ‘Bharat Rang Mahotsav 2022’, in India.

To note, paying homage to the greatest playwright and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore on his 150th Birth Anniversary (2011), Swapnadal produced the Tagore’s poetic drama ‘Chitrangada’.