Image Source: theatrefest.nsd.gov.in

Venue: Kamani Auditorium
Date: 9 February, 2016

Antigone, the Greek tragedy is an oft enacted play all over the world. Bharat Rang Mahotsav by NSD presented a Bengali version of this play by the Kolkata based theatre group Swapnasandhani having the popular actor/director Kaushik Sen at its helm.

The play revolves around the crisis that looms over the city of Thebes after the ruling belligerent princes Polynices and Eteocles kill each other. Creole (played by Sen) assumes power and orders that Eteocles shall be buried with state honour while Polynices would be left to rot. Antigone, Polynices’s sister, affianced to Creole’s son, revolts. This leads to lot more blood shed and perhaps is an apt reflection of the mindless violence and decay all around us.

While every actor on stage was seasoned, Sen, as Creole did great justice to his role. Breaking the heavy theatrical style of the production (huge cast, corpses hanging at the centre of the stage, loud dialogues) he managed to convey the evil to the audience. Antigone, played by Reshmi Sen, was a little disappointing. While she was comfortable in scenes of confrontation, she could not convey the softer emotions, the sorrow at the recent loss of her brothers.

Socio-political theatres are not very common in Delhi NCR. While Asmita and Arvind Gaur do some of that, their works are mainly street theatre genre and perhaps a little out of place in an auditorium. However, since the days of IPTA (Indian People’s Theatre Association) founded in 1942, socio-political dramas have been an important genre of Bengali theatre that may not be always entertaining, but definitely enjoyable. Antigone was one such piece that brought this kind of theatre to the Delhi theatre lovers. It is therefore no surprise that the majority audience appeared to be non-Bengalis and the English subtitles were extremely helpful.

Art breaks linguistic boundaries and how.