Whether in the city or district, theatre audiences have increased at an unusual rate recently for three main reasons. First, captivating stories. Second, natural yet beautiful acting (certainly by this generation's artistes). Third, the influence of youth on theatrical direction. This pleasant realisation became even stronger after the staging of the play 'Ekta Ischool', produced and planned by Suman Pal of 'Chakda Natyajan'.
Here, Debashis, another representative of this generation's youth, seems to be a one-man army in drama, stage, ambience, lighting and direction. Suman and Debashis somehow bring back childhood and make audiences face the pure feelings of love and nostalgia. Various colours of life radiate within the theatre's confines, where there is philosophy but no audacity.
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The story is exquisite. A hill in Tripura. A rural settlement surrounded by rivers. It seems like a beautiful reflection of a peaceful, magical life far from life's complexities and chaos. Here, on a winter afternoon, Gada and Mahendra meet. Two teenagers from opposite poles. Their upbringing, familiar worlds, and environments are all different. Yet an amazing friendship develops between them. They begin learning a new lesson in life.
Scene from the play 'Ekta Ischool'
Behind this story lies Debashis's far-reaching dream world. He says, "Watching the simple and sincere manner of hill people and thinking about the gaps in our own growing up, I wrote this play. The question arose: what could our school be like? What could our way of learning be like? Do all the simple paths of growing up become paralysed in the crowd of exams, marks, first boys, last boys, good boys, bad boys?"
A brief dialogue between the two teenagers reveals how deep this play's roots go. For example, Mahendra, "Now I eat with father's money. So I can't say anything. If I could earn, I would show them. Nobody beats you".
Scene from the play 'Ekta Ischool'
Gada, "Who will beat me? I am the head of the family. I earn and feed my grandmother. I run the household by selling milk, vegetables, and fish".
The story's pace picks up from here. Besides Amit Saha, Abhik Dhar, Debashis De, Soumen Bhattacharya, Shubhadeep, Abhishek, Ujan, Akshay, Aishi, Adrita, Sandipa, and Aditi have acted very well in the play. We hope for such beautiful stories in the future as well.
