At the corner of Ezra Street, at the entry of Kolkata’s largest light market, stands a memorial plaque. It is on this lane, at 25, Domtolla, now, 37, Ezra Street, that the first European-style Bengali proscenium theatre in India was established in 1795. This memorial plaque is dedicated to Gerasim Stepanovich Lebedev, the founder of ‘Bengalee Theatre’. The Russian linguist, musician and Indologist had rented a place to open a theatre, which could accommodate 200 viewers. Bengali actors and actresses were cast in the first shows of his Bengali translations of Richard Paul Jodrell’s ‘The Disguise’ (Kalpanik Sangbadal) and Moliere’s ‘Love is the Best Doctor’. The second shows couldn’t be staged because of a fire. Yet, this one-show wonder’s attempt is regarded as a landmark in Kolkata’s theatre history.
‘Raja Oedipus’, 1964 and (left) Utpal Dutt’s ‘Tiner Talowar’
This history has later seen seminal works by playwrights, directors and actors, including Dinabandhu Mitra, Dharmadas Sur, Girish Chandra Ghosh, Amritalal Basu, Binodini Dasi, Rabindranath Tagore, Sisir Bhaduri, Satu Sen, Bijan Bhattacharya, Shombhu Mitra, Tripti Mitra, Utpal Dutt, Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay, Keya Chakraborty, Sobha Sen, Ketaki Dutta, Badal Sircar, Saoli Mitra, Bibhas Chakraborty, Rudraprasad Sengupta, Manoj Mitra and Arun Mukhopadhyay. This legacy has been carried forward by thespians, like Ramaprasad Banik, Dwijen Mukhopadhyay, Meghnad Bhattacharya, Debasish Mazumdar, Ashok Mukhopadhyay and Usha Ganguly. The baton is being taken forward by Bratya Basu, Debesh Chattopadhyay, Kaushik Sen, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Debshankar Haldar, Goutam Ha lder, Sohini Sengupta, Anirban Bhattacharya, Sudipta Chakraborty, Arpita Ghosh, Kaushik Chattopadhyay, Abanti Chakraborty, Seema Mukhopadhyay and Manish Mitra among others.
“Kolkata’s first theatre, The Playhouse, was built in 1753 on the east side of the Writers’ Buildings. The all-wood Chowringhee Theatre at the Theatre Road crossing was inaugurated in 18 13 with a tragedy, named ‘Castle Spectre’, starring Esther Leach. Dwarkanath Tagore, along with other citizens of Kolkata, was involved in funding this theatre,” said academic and theatre critic Ananda Lal. But this theatre was destroyed in a fire in 1839.
Even the Sans Souci theatre, which first started inside a godown on Waterloo Street before shifting to the address where now stands St Xavier’s College, also caught fire. “The major historical landmark in the English proscenium theatre was the staging of ‘Othello’ in 1848 at Sans Souci theatre. It was the first time that an Indian actor, Baishnab Charan Auddy, performed alongside a British cast. Many of the Bangla theatre workers used to frequent British theatres. Girish Chandra Ghosh was known for going there,” Lal said, mentioning that English-language theatre in Kolkata saw another crest later on. “During the 1960s and ’70s, English theatre was rich in the number of groups performing. Asif Currimbhoy, one of the most prominent Indian dramatists in English, lived here in Kolkata at that time. At least a dozen of his plays are very important,” Lal added.
Back to Bengali theatre, another big experiment happened between 1830s and 1859. The gentlemen class of north Kolkata began to emulate whatever they had learnt in English schools and replay that in Bangla language. “Nabin Basu of Baghbazar took the story of Vidyasundar and designed a promenade theatre. His sprawling mansion, starting from Shyambazar tram depot to Baghbazar Bata, became the setting for the play,” said cultural commentator and theatre critic Anshuman Bhowmick. Shortly, the Pathuriaghata Thakurs wrote plays both in Bengali and English. “The Singha family of Belgachhia invited playwrights, like Ramnarayan Tarkaratna and Michael Madhusudan Dutt, to write original plays in Bangla,” Bhowmick said.
The Parsi Theatre flourished at the turn of the century with an accent on spectacle. The Madans played an active role. The Calcutta Parsi Amateur Dramatic Club, formed in 1908, even found a place for itself as India’s longest running theatre in the Limca Book of Records. Special mention ought to be made of Master Fida Hussain. “Sisir Bhaduri’s productions were produced by the patrons of the Parsi Theatre,” said theatre personality Debesh Chattopadhyay. But the greater impact was created by the Bengali Public Theatre. The watershed moment came in 1872 with the introduction of ticketed productions in Kolkata. “The first two decades of the 20th century were the rosy days of Bengali Public Theatre. That was the time when the likes of Kshirode Prasad Vidyavinode and D L Roy wrote. Plays, like ‘Chandragupta’ and ‘Shah Jahan’, were staged. When Sachindranath Sengupta wrote ‘Sirajdullah’ in 1938, it was patronized by the Congress,” Bhowmick added.
Performances of (top) Debesh Chattopadhyay’s ‘Devi Sarpamasta’ & (M) Bratya Basu’s ‘Ruddhasangeet’; (above) a memorial plaque on Ezra Street, which is dedicated to Gerasim Stepanovich Lebedev, the founder of ‘Bengalee Theatre’
Apart from Star and Minerva, most Bengali public theatres do not exist any more. “Revolving stages were common. It was introduced at Rangmahal by Satu Sen. Star, Biswaroopa and Tapan Theatre, too, had it. Sarkarina introduced a stage that went up and down,” Chattopadhyay added. By then, theatre actors, like Chhabi Biswas and Ahindra Chowdhury, had made their film debut. “From 1954, film actors started to dominate the stage. It started with the staging of ‘Shyamali’, starring Uttam Kumar and Sabitri Chatterjee, at Star Theatre. Then came others, like Anup Kumar, Basanta Chowdhury, Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Madhabi Mukherjee, Robi Ghosh, Nirmal Kumar, Tarun Kumar, Chinmoy Roy, Bhanu Bandopadhyay and Aparna Sen. This continued till May 1991, when a blaze broke out at Star Theatre. The next casualties were Biswarupa and Rangmahal,” said playwright-director-actor Bratya Basu.
Another new stream of theatre came up in 1942. “The foundation of Bohurupee in 19 42 marked the Nabanatya movement of Bengal theatre. When many theatres in Bengal subscribed to this movement, the term ‘Group Theatre’ came into vogue. Originally, this was coined in American theatre. Gandharba, Nandikar, Chetna, Theatre Workshop and Theatre Centre came up. The legacy continues with productions by Annya Theatre, Theatre Passion, Pancham Vaidik, Swapnaswandhani, Sansriti, Arghya, Ganakrishti, Bratyajon, Prachyo and other groups,” Chattopadhyay added. Hindi theatre, too, has had its presence. Anamika started functioning in 1955 with the dramatization of ‘Ghare Baire’.
