Swapnasandhani hosts discussion on Shakespeare as part of 30th year celebration

Popular theatre group

Swapnasandhani

celebrated it's 30th anniversary with a panel discussion at the Academy of Fine Arts recently. The event saw a packed house listening to the panelists, Aparna Sen, Srijit Mukherji, Bibhash Chakraborty and

Neel Mukhopadhyay

. The discussion, Bard in Bengal, had each panelist recall their work inspired by

Shakespeare

. They spoke about Bengal's theatre and cinema adaptations of Shakespeare.
Aparna Sen had adapted Arshinagar on the screen and Srijit Mukherji made Zulfiqar inspired from Julius Caesar and Anthony and Cleopatra. Bibhash Chakraborty was the last person to stage Hamlet in the Kolkata theatre scene. And Neel Mukhopadhyay is going to stage Hamlet in November among

Chetana

's plays, where Anirban Bhattacharya will play Hamlet. Soumitra Chatterjee's daughter Poulomi Bose gave everyone an insight into the stalwart's preparations for Shakespeare's King Lear.Speaking about the event, the group's member and actor Riddhi Sen said, "Shakespeare is always relevant to every corner of the world. Tagore and Shakespeare have always appealed to our kind of audience. The kind of stories Shakespeare has told are timeless and not bound by any geographical boundaries or a particular culture. It always talks about a crisis in current context."
Riddhi said the event was a celebration of their theatre group as well as the recognition of the good work done by a private organisation to support the technicians.
In the two years of the lockdown, a lot of theatre and cinema technicians got affected. Taking in account their plight, the theatre group had collaborated with a theatre production company to help them. "We will stage Hamlet and have decided that per show ticket sale of the play will go in reshaping the lives of the technicians. Their lives were disrupted in the past two years. Also, a health card for the sole earning members among them will be ensured," Riddhi added.