27th August 2008 - Madhusudan Mancha - 6.30 pm

As part of Sri Buddhadeb Basu's birth centenary celebrations - Theatron presented its new production

"Nepathya Natak"

Credits

Play Buddhadeb Basu

Lights Badal Das

Music Partha Sengupta

Direction Salil Bandyopadhyay

Review - Nepathya Natak

Nepathya Natak - stage reheral

The Associate Director and The Music Director

"Nepathya Natak" - A new beginning

After a gap of three months - Theatron is staging a play - NEPATHYA NATAK !! The long gap was unintentional, and as is said, due to 'unavoidable circumstances'. But the play is back with a new cast - at the Academy o Fine Arts - on 23rd June at 6.30 pm.

PLEASE BE THERE !

8th December 2007 - Sisir Mancha

As part of Sri Buddhadeb Basu's birth centenary celebrations - Theatron presented its new production

Credits
Play Buddhadeb Basu
Lights Badal Das
Music Partha Sengupta
Direction Saswati Biswas

"Nepathya Natak"




Cast
Aparesh:Abhijit Choudhury
Banani :Srimayi Majumdar
Jammu: Debabrata Bhattacharya
Imli :Anita Roy
Manomohanbabu:Gopal Ghosh
Brajadulal Pakrashi: Ashesh Choudhury
Anil:Chiranjib Goswami

We are rehearsing Buddhadeb Basu's play - Nepathya Natak

“If only something happens, if only someone comes, if only the door opens….suddenly…………”

The melancholy days melt into forlorn evenings, youth fades away…and age creeps in…silently, creativity shrivels and shrinks, love dies……and we keep on waiting ……...

Aparesh anf Banani wait, with the unspoken refrain hanging heavily in the air………

“If only something happens, if only someone comes, if only the door opens….suddenly…………”

And they come. With them comes laughter, and songs, unheard yet familiar, and flowers, of loved yet forgotten fragrances, and promises of endless days of sunbeams, where tomorrow is something to look forward to. As if all the conflicts stop, as if the discords fade, as if there is happiness……..
As if ……………………..

Kamlalebur Gaan

Banani's song

Show of "Bernarda Albar Bari" - Girish Mancha - 2nd December 2007 - 6.30 pm

Show of "Bernarda Albar Bari" - Girish Mancha - 2nd December 2007 - 6.30 pm

Theatron - An Introduction

We’ve always chosen plays that are beyond our means. If we want to define the character of our group, that single sentence should do it. We have remained around for nearly 30 years now, in Kolkata, the cultural capital of India, and we have survived despite our dogmatic stand.

We are part of Theatron. We are part of a group that has never gone for numbers, that has always measured success by the aesthetic standards it has been able to set, and the extent to which it has been able to enthral and captivate and touch the people.

The group was formed in April, 1974. The first few years were spent in rigorous trainings to equip ourselves for the task ahead.

Our Productions -

Pratham Partho and Sankranti (Buddhadeb Basu) – 1978-1979

Tughluq (Girish Karnad) – 1979-1980

Tapaswi–O-Taragini (Buddhadeb Basu) –1981 AND 1998

Medea (Euripides) – 1983

Raja Lear (Shakespeare) – 1986

Sada Ghora -(Rosmersholm) - (Ibsen) –1988

Bisarjan ( Rabindranath Thakur) – 1990

Khelaghar- (The Time and The Conways ) - (J B Priestley) –1992

Asangato ( Salil Bandyopadhyay) – 1995

Tomar Andhar Tomar Alo – (The Gift of The Gorgon ) - ( Peter Shaffer) - 1999

Kaalbela ( A Man For All Seasons) – (Robert Bolt) – 2000-2001

Tomari Matir Kanya – ( The Trojan Women) - (Euripides) - 2002

Mrityumukhar Ek Dui – (The Man With The Flower in His Mouth / Ai Ladki ) - (Luigi Pirandello/Krishna Sobti) – 2004

Shey – ( The Woman in Black) - (Susan Hill/Stephen Mallatratt) - 2005

Bernarda Albar Bari - (The House of Bernarda Alba) - (Federico Garcia Lorca) - 2006

Our Directors -

Salil Bandyopadhyay

Saswati Biswas

Salil Bandyopadhyay-felicitated by fellow thespians

Director : Salil Bandyopadhyay

Salil Bandyopadhyay’s attachment with theatre dates back to the early sixties, while he was still in his teens. An English Honours graduate from Jadavpur University, and an MBA in Materials Management, Salil Bandyopadhyay left the trappings of a secure job very early in his career, and gave himself up to theatre absolutely. After forming his own group Theatron ( the Greek root of theatre) in 1974, he drew the attention and interest of the theatre lovers with the staging of Buddhadeb Basu’s Pratham Partho and Sankranti. His identity lies in the plays he has directed over a period of 35 years, and the articles he has written (and is still writing) on theatre. He refuses to acknowledge any other identity.

Director : Saswati Biswas

A Chartered Accountant by profession, she is the General manager Finance in a leading FMCG company. She debuted as an actress, but graduated to direction under the guidance of Salil Bandyopadhyay.

Our latest production - Bernarda Albar Bari

Movie Clips of Bernarda Alba

The Alba Family and Neighbours come in for the funeral Service of Antonio Merfa Benevides


Adela Alba has a new dress

Photos of "Shey"

Shey !!!

Eel Marsh House stands tall, skeletal and isolated, across the Nine Lives Causeway, in the endless flat saltmarshes somewhere on England's bleak East Coast. Here Mrs Alice Drablow lived - and died - alone. Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is ordered by his firm's senior partner to travel up from London to attend her funeral and sort out all her papers. He is young and urban and has all the skepticism of youth in the supernatural . But he has a terrible sense of unease in the unfamiliar surroundings, far removed from the bustling city that is his home. And then, he glimpses a young woman with a wasted face, dressed all in black, at Mrs Drablow's funeral. Who is she? Why is she there? He asks questions, but the locals will not give him answers - they refuse to talk about the woman in black, or even to acknowledge her existence, at all. So, Arthur Kipps has to wait until he sees her again, and she slowly reveals her identity to him - and her terrible purpose.

In this chilling tale, a lawyer obsessed with a curse that he believes has been cast over him and his family by the spectre of a Woman in Black, engages a sceptical young actor to help him tell his terrifying story and exorcise the fear that grips his soul.
It all begins innocently enough, but then, as they reach further into his darkest memories, they find themselves caught up in a world of eerie marshes and moaning winds.

The borders between make believe and reality begin to blur and the flesh begins to creep ...

Director’s Note on the play - SHEY

SHEY ( “Woh” in Hindi ) treads in the footsteps of the classic ghost story. It’s not a horror story. It does not depend upon gruesome images to create shock waves and sensationalise. It relies on atmosphere, a vivid sense of place, on hints and glimpses and suggestions, and the events build up slowly, but persistently, to a terrifying climax.

The structure of SHEY is ingeniously created, where time is completely fluid, as are the characters. Where characters merge into each other, and each mouths the other’s line, and still these lines remain their very own.

SHEY is not only a ghost story. It tells the story of the same tragedy running through the lives of three individuals, the devastation of losing a child. And each of the stories is created by the other. We hear the story of one misfortune, see one unfolding in front of us as the play progresses, and are left with the warning sign of another impending disaster as the curtains drop.











The Director-Saswati Biswas. The Writer-Salil Bandyopadhyay. The Light designer-Badal Das. The Sound designer-Kanishka Sarkar.


Original play by Susan Hill/Stephen Mallatratt - The Woman in Black
Launched in 2005

Credits –
Lights – Badal Das


Sound Design - Kanishka Sarkar
Stage – Ajit Roy
Translation – Salil Bandyopadhyay
Direction – Saswati Biswas

Cast -
Actor – Asesh Choudhury
Kipps – Saswati Biswas
Woman – Chaiti Choudhury / Anita Roy

The photos of the production
More photos

Photos of "Mrityumukhar - Ek"

Photos of "Mrityumukhar - Dui"

Photos of "Kaalbela"

Tapaswi-O-Tarangini Photos

Photos of "Tapaswi-O-Tarangini"

Photos of "Tomar Andhar Tomar Alo"

Photos of "Tomari Matir Kanya"

Photos of "Raja Lear"

Photos of "Khelaghar"

Mrityumukhar Ek/Dui

Birth. And death. And in between - a moment - life. A moment, or an eternity. The game of life is not a game in the conventional sense. There are no players, and no winning or losing. Once the pieces are placed in the starting position, the rules determine everything that happens later. It is impossible to look at a starting position or pattern and see what lies in the future. The only way is to follow the rules of the game. A chill may come while it is still
summer outside, or the washed and faint echoes of yesterdays may bump against the lost hills. And we wait, hung in between birth and death, living the moment eternally. And yet, somewhere along the way, we forget this wonderful gift that is ours, forget the fragrances, the tastes, the sights, the touches, the sounds, the silences, that make this life so intensely desirable. Forget to celebrate life, that is so short, and yet, so complete.
Mrityumukhar Ek/Dui – two short pieces – based on Luigi Pirandello and Krishna Sobti’s writings, staged in 2004, brings out the passion that is life, the ecstasy that is life, the obsession that is life, the party that is life – if only we know how to live it.

Credits –
Lights – Badal Das
Music - Saswati Biswas
Stage – Ajit Roy
Translation – Saswati Biswas and Salil Bandyopadhyay
Direction – Saswati Biswas

Cast - Mrityumukhar Ek
The Violin Player – Amartya Ghosh
The Man – Asesh Choudhury
The Traveller – Dhrubajyoti Das
The Woman – Anita Roy

Cast - Mrityumukhar Dui
Mother – Saswati Biswas
Daughter – jagori Bandyopadhyay

The Telegraph_28.6.2004

Tomari Matir Kanya

The war of Troy is over. The Greeks have won, not by valour, but by a foul trick. For ten long years they besieged the city of Troy, but could not go beyond its impregnable walls, for these were built by two powerful immortals, the Sun God Apollo and the God of the High Seas, Poseidon. So they duped the Trojans into accepting a huge wooden horse as a token oftheir submission, which the Trojans themselves hauled inside the city walls in their elation as a symbol of victory. The nightlong celebrations left the Trojans tired and unsteady, and then the Greeks struck, for there were soldiers hidden inside the horse. Troy was swept clean of all its men in one night.
And now only the women are left, including those of the royal household. Queen Hecabe, wife of King Priam, mother to the gallant warrior Hector, the handsome Paris, the innocent Polyxena and the seer priestess Cassandra, is distraught in her grief. The Greeks, led by King Agamemnon , had struck Troy when Paris eloped with the gorgeous Helen, wife of the Greek king, Menelaus . Now their vengeance is complete, with the women of Troy beingmeted out to the Greeks as concubines, servants and paramours, and even the last male, the infant son of Hector and his wife Andromach, being killed.The God Poseidon and the Goddess Athene have plotted to wipe out the Greeks in a tornado after they sail for home . The Greeks are under the sentence of death, but before retribution descends on them, they make it clear, by their various outrages, how much they deserve it. They are doomed from the start, and proceed to pile up the count before our eyes. On the other hand, we are at a loss to understand how the Trojan women, whohave led their lives as per the moral tenets of society, have deserved their terrible fate. Do we then see that nothing the individual can do can have meaning in a world on the brink of annihilation for reasons and by means that the individual is unable to grasp and over which he appears to have no control?
In Tomari Matir Kanya, based on The Trojan Women of Euripides, staged in 2002, we decided to emphatically state that this is NOT a play about the plight of women in times of war. This is about the plight of human beings in times of war. This is NOT a play about thedefeat of a country. This is about the death of a civilization . This is about the loss of freedom and dignity, and ultimately about the loss of faith in all that is good and sacred.


Credits –
Lights – Badal Das
Music - Saswati Biswas
Stage – Khaled Choudhury
Translation – Salil Bandyopadhyay
Costume and Direction – Saswati Biswas

Cast -
Poseidon – Asim Sen
Athena- Jagori Bandyopadhyay
Hecabe – Alokananda Bhattacharya
Chorus – Bisnupriya Basak, Jagori Bandyopadhyay, Soma Kar, Arundhati Chakraborty, Saswati Biswas
Cassandra – Tania Banerjee
Andromache – Senjuti RoyMukhupadhyay
Talthibius - Dhrubajyoti Das
Guard – Asim Sen


The Telegraph March 21,2003

The Hindu March 16,2003