‘An Inspector Calls’ to be staged on Nov 27

After a long gap, the Assam chapter of Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) will present a new Assamese play in the form of ‘An Inspector Calls’ on November 27, 2019, at the Kumar Bhaskar Natya Mandir, Uzanbazar, Guwahati, for the theatre lovers of the State.

IPTA, which has worked for the development of humanity through culture since 1947, has produced a number of famous plays like ‘Xunali Dhanani’, ‘Seujia Kuhipaat’, ‘Tofaan’, ‘Navaprabhat’, ‘Sapasalor Seka’, etc, and many shadow plays like ‘Poharaloi’, ‘Amar Jatra’, ‘15 Augustor Ahbaan’ and ‘Tirut Singh’, which were unanimously praised by the masses. Hemango Biswas, the founder secretary of the Assam chapter, worked with some of the prominent personalities of the state such as Jyotiprasad Agarwala, Bishnu Prasad Rabha and Dr Bhupen Hazarika among others in its early period. The golden period of IPTA, from 1952 to 1962, coincided with the golden days of Dr Bhupen Hazarika's musical career.

‘An Inspector Calls’, a play written by English dramatist J. B. Priestley, was first performed in the Soviet Union in 1945, and made its English debut at the Old Vic, the following year. As one of Priestley’s best-known plays, ‘An Inspector Calls’ has been hailed as a classic of mid-20th century English theatre. The play has been adapted into Assamese by none other than Natasurjya Phani Sarma. The three-act drama which takes place on a single night, focuses on a prosperous upper middle-class family, who live in a comfortable home in a fictional town of the State. The family is visited by a man calling himself Inspector Parasuram Kakoti, who questions the family about the suicide of a young working-class woman in her mid-twenties.

Long considered part of the repertory of classic ‘drawing-room’ theatre, the play has also been hailed as a scathing criticism of the hypocrisies of capitalist society and as an expression of Priestley's socialist political principles. The play has an impressive cast comprising of noted Assamese film actor Alok Nath along with Mrinal Das, Priyanka Sarma, Queen Hazarika, Hemanta Debnath, Sameer Jyoti and Jayanta Gogoi. Directed by filmmaker Prodyut Kumar Deka, the other associates are Namrata Datta (Art), Sudeepta Sarma Bharali (Music), Puna Kalita (Lights), Babi Chakrabarty (Make Up), Dhanjit Das (Design), etc. The cast and crew are currently devoting much of their time, energy and talent to the challenge of recreating this thrilling, classic tale. The entry for the play is free for all theatre lovers.