Solo Play ‘Novera’ Returns to the Stage After Seven Years, With Its 30th Show This Evening

The solo play ‘Novera’, the first production of Dhrupadi Art Centre, is returning to the stage after seven years. Built around the life, art, love, loneliness and artistic identity of Bangladesh’s pioneering sculptor Novera Ahmed, the production comes back before audiences after a long break.

Its 30th staging will be held today, Saturday, at 7pm at the Nilima Ibrahim Auditorium of Bangladesh Mahila Samity on Bailey Road in the capital. For the cast, crew and regular theatre-goers, the return after the last staging seven years ago carries special significance.

The play’s journey began in 2016 with its first staging. Step by step it has now reached the milestone of a 30th performance, a notable achievement for a solo production.

Samiun Jahan adapted the original work by Hasnat Abdul Hye for the stage. The play is directed by Sajjad Rajib, with Samiun Jahan herself in the solo role. In the one-hour-ten-minute production, a single performer portrays Novera’s many-sided personality and artistic self.

In a press release, the organisers said Novera Ahmed is an important and exceptional name in the history of modern sculpture in Bangladesh. Going beyond conventional artistic thinking and social structures, she built a distinct artistic language of her own.

The release added that Novera’s life and practice were intertwined with a longing for freedom, individuality, love, loneliness and a constant search. That tension forms the heart of the play.

The artist, who at one point quietly withdrew from public life, is brought back to the stage in ‘Novera’ through her art and her inner world. The play is therefore both a biographical stage work and an attempt to explore an artist’s inner life.

The challenge of a solo play is that one performer must hold the audience’s attention throughout. Through costume, light and subtle shifts in performance, she has to bring to life the many chapters of an entire life.

Tickets for the play have been priced at 200, 300, 500 and 1,000 taka. The different seat prices are intended to let audiences from different backgrounds watch the performance.

If this return after seven years succeeds, audiences expect further stagings in the future. For now, all attention is on this evening’s 30th performance.