Tagore Drama Festival

‘Performing Tagore is our priority’

By Rahad Abir / May 08, 2009

Nuna Afroz, the founding member of the theatre group Pranganemor, playwright and director talks to Rahad Abir about the ongoing weeklong Tagore drama festival, which will conclude today.

New Age: Pranganemor is organising the Tagore drama festival inviting theatre groups both at home and abroad. Would you tell us about the objectives of the festival?

Nuna Afroz: Six years ago Prangonemor started its journey with a vow to stage Rabindranath’s plays regularly giving it the highest priority. We believe Rabindranath is our main base to practice pure theatre. For two years we were thinking of arranging this festival. This is the first time Tagore plays performed by theatre groups from both Bangladesh and West Bengal have been arranged at the festival.As the festival prioritises on hosting Tagore’s plays, we think this kind of event encourages the practice.

NA: Staging ‘Char Adhaya’ a novel on Swadeshi movement is not an easy job. You did a brilliant work. But some critics say that the audience often get bored.

Nuna: Except Shamvu Mitra’s ‘Bahurupi’ based on ‘Char Adhaya’ there is no successful staging of this novel. We have tried our level best. Interestingly I have found a few viewers who were overwhelmed seeing the play. As the story of ‘Swadeshi’ is based on a serious issue we wanted to attract the audience with our performances.

NA: How long have you been in Theatre?

Nuna: I have been involved in theatre since school and it has been almost 22 years. My first theatre group was ‘Barisal Natak’ in Barisal.

NA: What is the future plan for Pranganemor?

Nuna: To work more and to keep the troupe well organised. We are planning to bring out a new production next year.

Source: http://www.newagebd.com