The fifth National Theatre Festival will present 25 productions over eight days, starting Sunday. The venues are Rabindra Sadan, Madhusudan Mancha and Minerva Theatre.

Organised by Minerva Natya Sanskriti Charcha Kendra of the department of information and cultural affairs, the festival will bring plays in languages as diverse as Assamese and Urdu, Manipuri and Gujarati, and even Kokborok and Bundeli, other than Hindi and Bengali. There is a non-verbal play as well, called Nothing To Say.

“We received 169 applications with DVDs of the plays. A committee of 15 vetted them over a week and chose 23. Eight are from Bengal and the rest from outside the state,” said minister, playwright and theatre director-actor Bratya Basu on Friday.

Inaugural play Kothakar Choritro Kothay Rekhechho, directed by Debesh Chattopadhyay, and Ram by Makarand Deshpande (on February 23) are on invitation. Both will be staged at Rabindra Sadan.

For the first time, an interactive session will bring theatre lovers face to face with stalwarts such as Gautam Halder and Ajay Malkani on February 22, and Deshpande and Chattopadhyay two days later. Both sessions will be held at Minerva Theatre from 11am.

An exhibition will be held at Nandan on theatres that have shut down. There are no tickets and entry is allowed till seats are free.