Entertainment Desk

Two stage shows of popular theatre troupe Opera’s much-acclaimed production “Closet Land” will be held at the Nilima Ibrahim Auditorium of Bangladesh Mahila Samity in the capital today (Friday) at 5:00pm and 7:30pm respectively.

Originally, “Closet Land” is the work of eminent Indian filmmaker, screenwriter and playwright Radha Bharadwaj. The intricate drama, directed by Sajjad Sabbir, has been adapted to Bangla from Bharadwaj’s original texts by Nahid Smriti.

The tense psychological thriller plot of the play revolves around the arrest and interrogation of an author who is suspected of communicating subversive messages through her children’s stories. Her captor mixes subtle psychological cat-and-mouse games with brutal torture that is not for the squeamish.

Set in an unspecified country, a woman is taken from her home in the middle of the night, accused of embedding dissident messages into her book Closet Land. The book is a story about a child who, as a result of bad behaviour, has been locked in a closet as punishment.

The seemingly simple content is questioned by the government, which accuses the author of encouraging and introducing disloyalty among its audience of naïve children.

The interrogator is obstinate in his belief that the author is guilty of hidden propaganda. It is revealed that the novel was actually created as a form of escapism, providing a coping mechanism for the author, who endured sexual abuse as a child.

Near the end of the drama, the interrogator claims that he was the man who had sexually abused the author in her childhood. But one cannot be entirely sure he is telling the truth, as the drama suggests he was just using the abuse against her as a way of breaking her down.

Sazzad Sabbir and Nahid Smrity have played in the production.