London-based drama troupe Komla Collective will stage the show of their new production on “Birangona” in seven different places in Bangladesh.
Earlier on December 16, the troupe has started its Bangladesh tour with a show at the Gulshan Club, and will end with the show at the Chittagong Theatre Institute on December 30.
Local drama troupe Jatrik will produce the Bangla version of the play, except the Red Shift show on December 28.
The play, which came on the stage early this year, unfolds an ugly history of the Liberation War of Bangladesh.
It depicts the stories of rape, imprisonment, torture of the Birangona, the honouring label the then government gave to women who suffered sexual violence during the war.
The project of this outstanding production actually has started in 2010 when Leesa Gazi, one of the playwrights and actors of the play, came to Bangladesh, and met a group of Birangona women in Sirajganj.
During that visit, she talked to some 21 women who had been living a disgraceful life due to their wartime experiences for more than four decades.
Leesa returned to London with an intent to break the silence surrounding them.
And two years later, she went back to Sirajganj.
This time with the newly formed production company she founded with three other London-based artists.
They filmed the testimonial of five Birangona women, and, along with a local playwright, developed the script for a play.
The video footage used in the play to connect with the audience more directly and played the role of bonding the facts with the story potently.
The one-act play started with narration of folk tale, the story of Komola, which resembles the central character’s (played by Leesa Gazi) vulnerable situation when she was captured by the Pakistani occupation army.
The protagonist played a number of heart-rending characters that represent different Birangonas.
Amith Rahman, the other actor of the play, played three different character of the protagonist, the father, the husband and the son, behind the screen which with the help of shadow play.
Directed by Filiz Ozcan, the play wrapped in with out of the ordinary visual spectre as Filiz used few unique theatrical techniques – the Turkish tradition of shadow play.
The play is nominated for the Offie Award, the London based prestigious theatre award, which sorted the play in the productions that defy traditional categories.