Bechara B. B. at KCC - July
Date: 13th July 2024
Time: 6:30 pm
Venue: KCC Amphitheatre, 1st floor
Kolkata Centre for Creativity presents KCC Arts Lab 8.0 - Bechara B. B. directed by Suman Mukhopadhyay, in collaboration with Chetana and Tritiyo Sutra. This play, born out of an intensive month-long preparation at KCC, is designed with fragments of plays by one of the most celebrated German playwrights and philosophers, Bertolt Brecht, and reflects the essence of Brecht's life, ideas, and philosophy.
This performance captures the visceral chaos and decay of Brecht's era, resonating with the poignant challenges of our time, while seamlessly blending sensuous and tender imagery, breathing fresh relevance into Brecht's political and artistic visions. Join us for an evening of multidisciplinary art creation, where traditional and contemporary forms intertwine on 13th July at KCC – a unique convergence of past and present in the heart of Kolkata.
About the play:
Kolkata Centre For Creativity in collaboration with Chetana and Tritiyo Sutra presents Bechara B.B. - a free-flowing performative exploration of Brecht’s life, ideas, politics, and dialectics. Brecht physically felt the chaos and putrid decay of his times. His images are ‘brutally sensuous’ and ‘melancholically tender’. We are impregnated with the horrors of our times and realize the fresh relevance of his political and artistic visions. This play is the outcome of KCC Arts Laboratory 8.0, which aims to support the multidisciplinary art creation by young artists of traditional and contemporary forms, by providing them with the necessary resources, support, and space for exploration and experimentation.
Credits:
- Design and Direction: Suman Mukhopadhyay, Text Edit: Debarshi Bandyopadhyay
- Music: Subhadeep Guha
- Lighting Design: Sudip Sanyal
- Audio Design: Anindya Nandy, Sound and Projection Operation: Dipesh Mukherjee
- Technical Supervision: Dipanjan Dutta
- Set Construction: Bilu Dutta
- Make up: Md. Ali, Costumes: Sayan Majhi
- Calligraphy: Somnath Ghosh
- Production: Tausif Rahman, Production Asst.: Fazal Karim
Translation: Bishnu De, Sankha Ghosh, Alokeranjan Dasgupta, Utpal Dutt, Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay, Mohit Chattopadhyay, Arun Mukhopadhyay, Ashok Mukhopadhyay, Partha Chattopadhyay, Moinak Biswas, Samir Dasgupta, Debiprasad Bandyopadhyay, Sandipan Chakraborty, Rahul Purokayasta, Debarshi Bandyopadhyay and Suman Mukhopadhyay
Acknowledgements: Sibaji Bandyopadhyay, Sumanta Mukhopadhyay, Subhojit Gupta, Sujan Mukhopadhyay
Special Thanks to Ms. Richa Agarwal (Chairperson, Kolkata Centre for Creativity)
About the director:
Suman Mukhopadhyay’s theatre and films deal with the socio-political domain and engage in critical assessment of contemporaneity. His explorations into the subaltern realities and histories have given a distinction mark to his theatre productions and filmmaking.
Suman Mukhopadhyay is one of India’s leading theatre directors and done productions ranging from European drama to major adaptations of Bengali masterpieces and productions of Indian plays. His major plays are Teesta Paarer Brittanto, Mephisto, Bisarjan and King Lear. Suman has also directed eight full-length feature films including Nazarband (2020); Asamapta (2017); and Herbert (2005) which won the National Award for Best Regional Film that year. He participated and won awards in various national and international theatre and film festivals including Busan, Montreal, Dubai, Munich, San Francisco, Seattle, and Kerala etc. Suman has also made a number of documentaries, TV series, short films and cine-plays. He was conferred with an award from Motion Picture Association and Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Brisbane in 2017. His latest films Nazarband (Captive) had its world premiere at Busan International Film Festival and Posham Pa has won an award in Female Filmmakers Festival, Berlin in 2020. Suman taught and directed plays at UC Berkeley, University of Toledo, Kalamazoo College and Barnard College in the USA. He recently finished working with Columbia University, New York on a Fulbright fellowship.
