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Happy Birthday: V M Vinu

'সায়ক' নাট্যদলের ৪২ তম বর্ষপূর্তি উৎসব

আগামী ২৯ নভেম্বর, ২০১৫ থেকে শুরু হতে চলেছে 'সায়ক' নাট্যদলের ৪২ তম বর্ষপূর্তি উৎসব। চারদিনব্যপী এই নাট্য উৎসবে প্রদর্শিত হবে চারটি নাটক, যথাক্রমে : 'দামিনী হে', 'নটী বিনোদিনী', 'চলচিত্ত চঞ্চরী' এবং  'দায়বদ্ধ'।

Happy Birthday: Eugène Ionesco

Eugène Ionesco was a Romanian playwright who wrote mostly in French, and one of the foremost figures of the French Avant-garde theatre. Beyond ridiculing the most banal situations, Ionesco's plays depict the solitude and insignificance of human existence in a tangible way.Though best known as a playwright, but plays were not his first chosen medium. He started writing poetry and criticism.Ionesco began his theatre career late; he did not write his first play until 1948.He translated a play, 'La Cantatrice Chauve', which was performed for the first time in 1950 under the direction of Nicolas Bataille. It was far from a success and went unnoticed until a few established writers and critics, among them Jean Anouilh and Raymond Queneau, championed the play.Ionesco's earliest works, and his most innovative, were all one-act nonsense plays or extended sketches: 'La Cantatrice Chauve translated as 'The Bald Soprano' or 'The Bald Prima Donna' (written 1948), 'Jacques ou la soumissio'n translated as 'Jack', or 'The Submission' (1950), 'La Leçon' translated as 'The Lesson' (1950), 'Les Salutions' translated as 'Salutations' (1950), 'Les Chaises' translated as 'The Chairs' (1952), 'L'Avenir est dans les oeufs' translated as 'The Future is in Eggs' (1951), 'Victimes du Devoir' translated as' Victims of Duty' (1952) and, finally, 'Le Nouveau Locataire' translated as 'The New Tenant' (1953).With 'Tueur sans gages' translated as The Killer Ionesco began to explore more sustained dramatic situations featuring more humanized characters. Notably this includes 'Bérenger', a central character in a number of Ionesco's plays, the last of which is 'Le Piéton de l'air' translated as 'A Stroll in the Air'.                                                        Ionesco's later work has generally received less attention. This includes 'La Soif et la faim' translated as Hunger and Thirst' (1966), 'Jeux de massacre' (1971), 'Macbett' (1972, a free adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth) and 'Ce formidable bordel' (1973).

Ionesco also wrote his only novel, 'The Hermit', during this later period. It was first published in 1975.                                                                                                                                                           A part from the libretto for the opera 'Maximilien Kolbe' (music by Dominique Probst) which has been performed in five countries, filmed for television and recorded for release on CD, Ionesco did not write for the stage after 'Voyage chez les morts' in 1981. However, 'La Cantatrice chauve' is still playing at the 'Théâtre de la Huchette' today, having moved there in 1952.                                             Ionesco also contributed to the theatre with his theoretical writings (Wellwarth, 33).In the first section, titled "Experience of the Theatre", Ionesco claimed to have hated going to the theatre as a child because it gave him "no pleasure or feeling of participation" . He wrote that the problem with realistic theatre is that it is less interesting than theatre that invokes an "imaginative truth", which he found to be much more interesting and freeing than the "narrow" truth presented by strict realism . He claimed that "drama that relies on simple effects is not necessarily drama simplified".                           Ionesco is often considered a writer of the Theatre of the Absurd. This is a label originally given to him by Martin Esslin in his book of the same name, placing Ionesco alongside such contemporary writers as Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, and Arthur Adamov.                                                                   In Present Past, Past Present, Ionesco wrote, "Breton taught us to destroy the walls of the real that separate us from reality, to participate in being so as to live as if it were the first day of creation, a day that would every day be the first day of new creations."

Happy Birthday: Karthik Kumar

Happy Birthday: Rajkumar Hirani

Paying Our Homage to Veteran Stage Actress Kozhikode Santha Devi

Damayanthi better known by her stage name Kozhikode Santha Devi, was an Indian Malayalam film and stage actress. In a career spanning about sixty years, she acted in more than 1000 plays including ‘Kudukkukal’, ‘Smaarakam’, ‘Deepasthambham Mahaascharyam’, ‘Inquilaaabinte Makkal’, ‘Ithu Bhoomiyaannu’ etc.
She made her debut as an actress through a 1954 drama ‘Smarakam’ written by Vasu Pradeep and directed by Kundanari Appu Nair. She has received the” Kerala State award” for best Stage actress in 1968 for her role in ‘Kudukkukal’ and for Best Actress in State plays in 1983 for ‘Deepasthambham Mahashcharyam’. In 2005 she was awarded with the lifetime achievement award from” Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi”. Santha Devi died on 20 November 2010 evening in a private hospital in Kozhikode. We pay our homage to this veteran stage actress on her 5th death anniversary.