Theatre Wave, a new theatre troupe, premiered its first play titled ‘Mukhomukhi’ at the experimental theatre hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in the capital Dhaka on Friday.
With the support of the cultural affairs ministry, the play was premiered as part of the ‘Remembering Monsoon Revolution’, which is officially referred to the July mass uprising that ousted the authoritarian Awami League regime past year.
The play written and directed by Dhiman Chandra Barman depicts the stories of missing bodies of those who were brutally killed during the July uprising in 2024.
With nonlinear events, the play also depicts a torture cell and interrogation, war and international politics which killed millions of children in wars, and a mother searching his son in a graveyard who was buried as unidentified during the student-led mass uprising in Bangladesh past year.
The play ends with a surreal discussion of four martyrs, of which three were killed in the 2024 uprising and the rest one was killed in the War of Independence in 1971, but they do not know whether their deaths made Bangladesh a safe place for all walks of people.
Mamun Ahmed, Poly Chowdhury, Fozia Afrin Tilu, Mojahidul Islam Rifat, Sreekanta Mondal, Sayma Selim Anika, Swarup Ratan Lalan and Hasibul Islam played different characters for the play.
Dhiman Chandra Barman designed the stage and the light while Rageeb Nayeem designed the background music of the production.
Mohsina Akhter designed costumes while Amit Chowdhury and Hasan Ishtiaque Imran jointly choreographed the movement for of the production.
‘The ruling class always attempts to keep power in their lap by creating illusion and confusion to rule the people. Power is a circle where the ruler changes, but their characters do not, even a lot of people sacrifice their lives against suppressive rules,’ Dhiman Chandra Barman said, adding that the play aimed to create a discourse between the state and its citizens.
