
Script & Direction: Ashis Chattopadhyay
Story: Émile Zola
Group: Gobardanga Shilpayan, North 24 Parganas
Language: Bengali
Duration: 1 hr 35 mins
The Play
The story is based upon happenings at Montsou Colliery. Etienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated young man with a dangerous temper. He comes to the colliery in search of work and takes up a back-breaking job at Le Voreux mine, he discovers that his fellow miners are ill, hungry, in debt, and unable to feed and clothe their families. When conditions in the mining community deteriorate even further, Lantier finds himself leading a strike that could mean starvation or salvation for all. BOL is a parable of the love-hate relationship human beings have with the earth.
Director’s Note
The publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species, in some way, affected the European theatre also. The theory of evolution challenged the theological beliefs that species were unchanging parts of a designed hierarchy, and that humans were unique and unrelated to other animals. Around the same time Karl Marx’s A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy got published, and few years later, Das Capital. It is my strong belief that publication of such books and theories was a catalyst to naturalism in European literature and theatre. French novelist and dramatist Emile Zola (1840-1902) expressed that the human being should be brought under observation like the prime element. In 1880 Zola wrote that the expression of man should be noticed. In search of realism, in the thought of the observable novel by Zola, Germinal an immortal creation is. Bol the play is based on this perspective of such novel.
The Director & Adapter
Born in Kolkata, Ashis Chattopadhyay, a promising young playwright & director, started his career in 1980. He founded his own theatre troupe Gobardanga Shilpayan in 1980 at Gobardanga, near Kolkata.
He has received many awards including West Bengal Natya Akademi’s Best Director Award 2003, Sayak Samman for Best Direction 2003, Prerona Samman for Best Director 2004, Sayak Samman for Best Playwriter 2005, Cittya Sarkar Smriti Samman for Best Director 2010, Jyotsnamakha Das Smriti Samman for Best Director 2012, Sovon Samman for Best Director 2012, Tarasankar Samman for Best Director 2012, Dinabandhu Mitra Samman for Best Director 2014, and Kanailal Smriti Samman for Best Director 2014.
The Novelist
Émile Zola was a French novelist, playwright, journalist, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus. Zola was nominated for the first and second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 and 1902.
The Group
39 years ago Gobardanga Shilpayan came into existence in North 24 Parganas, West Bengal. Apart from producing theatre Gobardanga Shilpayan has been organizing different cultural functions viz, Gobardanga Natya Mela, seminars, felicitation ceremonies, exhibition of photos of different productions of different theatre organizations, district theatre workshop mela, and also speeches on theatre.
Cast & Credits
Etienne Dipa Brahma
Mr. Hennebeau Aveek Bandyopadhyay
Maheu Shouvik Sarkar
Gregoire Sujit Das
Bonnemort Priyendusekhar Das
Negrel Saheb Ali Mondal
Souvarine Sayan Mondal
Catherine Biswajit Das
Chaval Rajesh Karmakar
Estelle Manoj Das
Baro Sarder Swapan Banik
Rasseneur Tapas Duttachowdhury
Jakat Nandadulal Nandy
Jala Sujit Mondal
Choto Sarder Sudarshan Biswas
Coal Mine Worker 1 Sankar Nandy
Coal Mine Worker 2 Kushal Bose
Coal Mine Worker 3 Samir Nandy
Stage Design & Music Aveek Bandyopadhyay
Light Design Ramprasad Bhattacherjee
Costume Design Dipa Brahma
Sound Operator Sankar Bose
Make-up Md. Nur
Illustration Priyendusekhar Das
Technical Assistant Shouvik Sarkar
Make-up Assistants Partha Acharya, Indranil Sukla
Light Operator Gour Nandy, Gopal Ghosh
Carpenter Dhiren Roy
Costume-Making Sunil Kundu