Kolkata’s relationship with the performing arts is as old as the city itself. Bengal has always had a love for communicating creativity through performances, be it music or theatre or any other form. The third edition of ‘The City As A Museum’ dived deeper into what sparks this fascination for the stage, with a series of events between November 17 and 26. My Kolkata was there.
Byanga Darshan
Throughout Bengal’s history, humour has been used to convey the most powerful ideas. The biggest weapon in the arsenal of most thinkers wasn’t protests or violence. It was satire. Haritaki Bagan Bari became the setting for an exhibition and workshop that delved into Cartoon Dol’s archives of Bengal’s caricature art. The exhibition comprised cartoons that confronted the most sensitive socio-political issues with a laugh. The evening ended with a concert by Chandrabindoo, known for their satirical lyrics.
Keyabat Meye
The iconic Barrister Babur Bari in Beliaghata was transformed into a haven for theatre, with performers and audience meshed together. Queer-feminist theatre collective Samuho utilised every nook and corner of the home for a retelling of Keyabaat Meye, Sripantha’s collection of seven essays. The performance explored the lives of newly educated women in 19th-century Bengal, who took massive strides against Hindu heteropatriarchy.
Mis-En-Stage
A peek into the archives at Natya Shodh Sansthan
Between every curtain rise and fall, audiences are transported into different worlds. Set designs and costumes befuddle minds into visualising alternate realities, keeping alive the magic of theatre. In this event, scholar Trina Nileena Banerjee traced the evolution of set design in Bengal through the theatre archive at Natya Shodh Sansthan.
Gab-Sur-Kinnar
The highlight of the event was a performance by (L-R) Rohen Bose and Asif Khan on the tabla, with Alla Rakha Kalawant on the sarangi
The world of Indian classical music is incomplete without the tabla, an instrument that provides both rhythm and personality to every composition. Maestros Asif Khan and Rohen Bose took music lovers through the history of the instrument, from the making to how it mirrors human language. In the second-half of the event, Alla Rakha Kalawant joined them with his sarangi for an open-air concert at Jorasanko Thakur Bari, bringing down the curtains on The City As A Museum.
“India has a long tradition of blending visual art with performance and storytelling, as we see in the patachitra tradition. Collaborations with musicians, theatre practitioners, dancers, and other performing artistes has always enriched ‘The City as a Museum’, where one tradition complements and deepens our understanding of the other, especially since artists rarely stick to strict silos,” said said Sumona Chakravarty, vice-president of museums at DAG.
