Two-day ‘Selim Al Deen Festival’ begins today

Today is the 73rd birth anniversary of Bangladeshi playwright and theatre artist Natyacharya Selim Al Deen. To mark the day, Swapnadal, a popular Bangladeshi theatre troupe, is organizing a two-day festival titled ‘Selim Al Deen Birth Anniversary Festival’.

With the slogan, ‘Bishwa Joye Bangla Natya Aj Egiye Jay, Oitijya-Rabindranath-Selim Al Deen Dharay’, the festival begins with placing a wreath at the grave of Natyacharya at Jahangirnagar University this morning. 

Today, Swapnadal is bringing its mono-drama ‘Helen Keller’ to the Experimental Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy at 7 pm.

‘Helen Keller’ is the 17th production of Swapnadal, written by Apurba Kumar Kundu and directed by Zahid Repon. The cast is Juana Sobnom, while the production manager is Shakhawat Shamol.

The production depicts the life, works, dreams, struggle and philosophy of the legend and ‘Wonder of the World’ Helen Keller. Despite having multiple disabilities, Helen was able to overcome all obstacles through her extreme self-confidence and also by the extraordinary support of her teacher Anne Sullivan.

Before staging the play, a documentary titled ‘Oporiharjo Selim Al Deen O Swapno Doler Bondhur Ovijtra’ will be screened at the same venue.

The two-day festival will come to an end tomorrow by staging the play ‘Tringsha Shatabdee’ at the Studio Theatre Hall of BSA. Adapted and directed by Zahid Repon, the story of ‘Tringsha Shatabdi’ is based on the destruction of the two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which lead to the surrender of Japan and was meant to be the end of the war to end all wars. However, the world has seen many more wars since.

Born on August 18, 1949, Selim Al Deen was the pioneer of the neo-theatre movement in Bangladesh. His plays have been included in the curricula of the University of University, Jahangirnagar University, Jadavpur University and others. He received different awards, namely, National Film Award in 1994, Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1984, Ekushey Padak in 2007 and others. His play ‘Hargaj’ was translated into the Swedish language, and the play has been staged in Hindi by the Indian Ranga Kormi Natyadal. He was the founder and chairperson of the Department of Drama and Dramatics at Jahangirnagar University.

He passed away on January 14, 2008.