Spardha to stage ‘Antigone, Kabor, Chaka...’ at Shilpakala tomorrow

Spardha: Independent Theatre Collective will stage the second performance of its new metatheatre production “Antigone, Kabor, Chaka and Behular Bhasan-e Daphonhin Bibhinno Lasher Gayebana Janaza” at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka on Friday.

Directed by Syed Jamil Ahmed, the production will be staged at the academy’s Studio Theatre Hall at 7pm. The troupe describes it as a self-conscious, self-reflexive metatheatrical work.

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The production draws on Sophocles’ “Antigone”, Selim Al Deen’s “Chaka”, Munier Chowdhury’s “Kabor”, Rabindranath Tagore’s poem “Sonar Tari” and different dramatic works based on the Manasamangal tradition, alongside readings from historical documents and multimedia elements.

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The production takes its conceptual basis from ideas proposed by thinkers including Ernest Renan, Tagore, Victor Turner, Shafi Mostafa, Mushtaq Khan, Carl Jung, Jacques Lacan and Lionel Abel.

According to Spardha, the performance uses these ideas to examine questions of nationhood, social drama, political nationalism, political reconciliation, archetypes, acknowledgment of guilt and the ethical dimensions of desire.

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The performance explores political killings and unresolved historical violence in Bangladesh through the recurring image of unburied bodies. Spardha says the production raises questions about whether the country can move towards reconciliation without acknowledging the deaths and violence that have marked its history.

The performance will conclude with a symbolic gayebana janaza, or funeral prayer in absentia, for the souls of political leaders and ordinary people who were killed.