If one could live forever, would life hold the same meaning as it would to one who is mortal? Sudipto Chatterjee’s Bengali play Na-Maron (Un-death), directed by Amitava Baksy, centres on this philosophical question. The play tells the story a farmer couple Rongo and Mukto who get an opportunity to live forever, what happens to them forms an intriguing storyline.
Na-Maron is one of Enad’s biggest theatre productions. The play emerged from an intense creative process. Sudipto wrote the play when he was in college between 1984 and 1985. “When you are 18 and 19 years old, you tend to let your imagination fly, unbridled. The play was quite ambitious at the time, it has more than 20 songs, there are about 30 characters. It was difficult to produce the play. I had subsequently lost the script. But Amitava, my friend from college still had it. I salute Amitava’s gesture and effort to be able to nurture the play for so many years,” says Sudipto, scholar and playwright, who studied dramatics at the National Theatre Institute, Eugene O’Neill Theater Centre, Waterford CT, USA, and completed his Ph.D. from the Tisch School Of The Arts, New York University.
The idea for the play came from two stories: the myth of Sybil and Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Tithonus . Adding a personal and deeper touch to the play is Sudipto’s own experience of personal loss. “I lost my father at an early age. I used to dream of him often. I used to think my father has returned. I wished my father didn’t die. But I eventually had the philosophical realisation that death completes the sentence of life.”
Enad, which in Bengali stands for Ekti Natoker Dol , put simply, a drama group, comprises professionals from different walks of life who come together for theatre and rehearse for plays over the weekend. The group has been rehearsing for Na-Maron for eight months.
Na-Maron will be staged at K.H. Kala Soudha on April 26 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. and April 27 at 3.30 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. There will be a scene-by-scene synopsis for non-Bengali audience. Tickets are available at indianstage.in, bookmyshow.com, buzzintown.com and at the venue. There will be a discussion between Amitava and Sudipto after the performance.
