As Badungduppa Kalakendra at Rampur in Goalpara district of Assam steps into the silver jubilee year of existence next year, the organization is welcoming theatre, art and culture lovers for the 14th edition of the ‘Under the Sal Tree’ theatre festival.
The unique festival, acclaimed internationally for its ecofriendly setup amid Sal tree plantation, is being held on December 15, 16 and 17. The festival is organized completely under natural settings – with no artificial devices, not even a microphone to enhance the voice of the actors. The organizers use only bamboo and straw to build the stage and the sitting arrangements for the spectators.
As the festival, started by Late Sukracharjya Rabha, one of the widely respected theatre personalities of the region, hosts the 14th edition, the Badungduppa Kalakendra looks forward to the Silver Jubilee year 2024 – celebrating the arduous journey of relentless experimentation with theatre as art form since day one.
“It has not been a cakewalk for us. Challenges were many but so immaculate was your support that it made everything seem possible and most significantly unforgettable. Your unconditional love during this journey of many ups and downs spanning a period of over two long decades have always been a testament of immense inspiration and true comradeship. Let us take the pleasure of extending our gratitude for your support and goodwill on the eve of celebrating 25 years of existence,” said Badungduppa Kalakendra managing director Madan Rabha.
The 14th edition of ‘Under the Sal Tree’ theatre festival seeks to undertake an introspective journey down the memory lane to facilitate a discursive session of self-evaluation and retrospection before the forthcoming Silver Jubilee celebration due next year.
In the three days of the unique festival, five plays will be staged. On the inaugural day on December 15, a Rabha language play called ‘Madaiah Muchi’ directed by Sukracharjya Rabha will be performed by Badungduppa Kalakendra.
In the afternoon, Bengali play ‘Srijon Hobe Kabe’ by scriptwriter and director Bidyutjit Chakraborty will be staged by Kalabhumi, Agartala.
On December 16, ‘Pala Kuntala’, a Bengali play by Chena Adhuli, West Bengal, will be staged. The script and direction are by Rajat Das. Later in the afternoon, Assamese play ‘Ratnakar’ will be performed by Purbaranga, Guwahati. The script and direction are by Gunakar Dev Goswami.
On December 17, Chhattisgarhi and Hindi play ‘Charandas Chor’ will be performed by Naya Theatre, Bhopal. The play is directed by Habib Tanvir.
On all days, the plays will be followed by discussions in the evening amid bonfire.
Badungduppa Kalakendra president Cheena Rabha and secretary Lakhikanta Rabha, in a statement, urged the theatre, art and culture lovers to be a part of the 14th edition of the ‘Under the Sal Tree’ festival as the organization continues the theatre revolution started by founder Late Sukracharjya Rabha.
In some of the previous editions, theatre groups from South Korea, Brazil, Poland, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh also participated.
Spearheading the avant-garde movement of “Hygiene Theatre” since its inception, Late Sukracharjya Rabha organised the theatre festival in the midst of nature to spread the message of the importance of co-existing with nature establishing a symbiotic relationship. Started in 2008, the festival seeks to experiment and inaugurate a new idiom of performance with special focus on redefining the reality through self-realization by inversion of the colonial ‘self/other’ binary avoiding the tradition of imitating the ‘other’. Late Rabha and his theatre group Badungduppa Kalakendra earned international acknowledgement for the open-air theatre festival, ‘Under the Sal Tree’.
Sukracharjya Rabha passed away in 2018.
This year, the festival is supported by Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council, Indian Oil Corporation Limited and Bongaigaon Refinery.
