Mirroring your psyche on stage feels like a summit: Playwright Debasis Sengupta

Absurd theatre has been a form seldom attempted in Bangla theatre and even rarer in its acceptance.

- MOHUL BHATTACHARYA

Indian absurdist playwrights have survived on the sheer brilliance of their storytelling and plot. Debasis Sengupta is one such playwright, actor, and director for his latest play, Bhrunaja Shabdera (The Unuttered Words). Performed during the two-day theatre festival in Nazrul Manch, Kamarhati, arranged by Belghoria Ethic and Belghoria Rupo-Taposh, the play amassed a significant number of reviews, acceptance and praise from the audience.

Debasis Sengupta has been a playwright for more than three decades, working in and around Kolkata, representing Bengali theatre locally and nationally with his group Belghoria Ethic. He has received the Sundaram Award for best playwright, the Sayak Award for best playwright, the Young Writer's Encouragement Award from Sahitya Academy, and many others. He has also attended Bharangam twice as a playwright, director and actor.

In an exclusive interview with The Statesman, Sengupta delved into theatre and his latest creation in the present landscape of theatre:

Q. What has been the creative process behind this particular play?

The thing is, I try to explain as I go forward with the drama. It is a process; it has to be acted out on stage, and the concepts have to be explained in theatrical form by the actors. I think that process has been a success so far, but it is my text, and it is the nature of my texts to keep changing. The current text is a work of over one and a half years; this is the present form. But I'm sure it will transform in the future.