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Safdar Hashmi Marg, Todermal Road Area, Mandi House, New Delhi, Delhi 110001
India
Poem of an Ending
POEM OF AN ENDING is a stage adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Shesher Kobita’, a classic revered by many. The novel has been adapted as radio plays and into a film in Bengali. However, this is for the first time ‘Shesher Kobita’ is adapted for the stage in English for a wider audience. This literary piece is considered as one of the best works of Tagore.
The play recounts the iconic love story of Amit Ray, a barrister educated at Oxford, whose virulent intellectualism reveals itself in its opposition to all forms of tradition. He meets Labonyo in a car accident and the romance builds up in the misty hills of Shillong. Amit’s iconoclasm meets Labonyo’s sincere simplicity through a series of dialogues and poems. But will these two worlds finally meet? The novel explores the realities of love as romance and marriage through a meeting of two mature minds. The story is also supported by Ketaki, Shovon, and Yogomaya who have critical roles in this story of love and conflict.
The play is presented in a unique format where each lead character is represented by an actor and a dancer/movement expert. The unique combination represents love as genderless and universal. The format brings in the contemporary element to the play and makes the production engaging for a young audience. The core idea behind the production is to present Tagore in a new age format, which has not been done yet on stage. With POEM OF AN ENDING, we have attempted to bring Tagore closer to the audience of this new generation and introduce them to the global genius in a new format.
