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A Man for All Seasons staged at Shilpakala
Robab Rosan
The 30th show of 'A Man for All Seasons', a play by Robert Bolt, was held at the National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy at Segun Bagicha in Dhaka on Monday.
The play, translated by Shahed Iqbal and directed by Azad Abul Kalam, drew a large audience on the day. The play is about the life and times of Sir Thomas More, a member of the Privy Council, speaker of the House of Commons and chancellor of the Exchequer.
The 30th show of the play was a tribute to recently expired Habib Tanvir, internationally claimed Indian theatre activist, and Gaziul Haque, the Language Movement hero of Bangladesh.
The play was primarily written for BBC Radio in 1954, but after Bolt's success with The Flowering Cherry, he reworked it for the stage.
It was first performed in London, marking the opening of the Globe Theatre (now Gielgud Theatre) on July 1, 1960. It later found its way to Broadway, enjoying a critically and commercially successful run of over a year. It has had several revivals, and was subsequently made into a feature film and a television movie.
The plot is based on the true story of Saint Thomas More, the 16th-century chancellor of England, who refuses to endorse King Henry VIII's wish to divorce his aging wife Catherine of Aragon, who could not bear him a son, so that he could marry Anne Boleyn, the sister of his former mistress. The play portrays More as a man of principle, envied by rivals such as Thomas Cromwell and loved by the common people and by his family.
The translator deserves special mention for the presentation of the history of England as well as the life of More in a lucid language. On the other hand, set design and lighting by Saiful Islam, music by Rahul Ananad and costume by Banya Mirza successfully created the ambience of the play presenting the 16th century England for the audience of Bangladesh.
Azad Abul Kalam played the role of Sir Thomas More, Shirin Sultana acted as Lady Alice More and Shahnaz Jerin Suttar as Margaret More.
Among others, Kazi Touhidul Islam Imon played the role of the Common Man, Sakhawat Hossain Rezvi of Richard Rich and Tapan Majumdar of Duke of Norfolk.
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The Proposal tops US box office
BBC
Disney's romantic comedy 'The Proposal' has hit the top of the North American box office on its opening weekend, early estimates show.
The film, starring Sandra Bullock as a hard-nosed executive who coerces her assistant into a fake marriage to avoid deportation, took $34.1.
It puts last week's number one, bachelor party film The Hangover, in second place with $26.9m.
Prehistoric comedy Year One opened at number four with $20.2m.
Animated comedy Up, a former number one about about a grumpy old man and a scout who travel to South America in a flying house, was at number three with $21.3 m. The top five was rounded out by subway hijacking thriller The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, which took $11.3m.
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Open-air art exhibition at Chhobir Haat
Cultural Correspondent
The four-day art exhibition titled 'Open Air Art Exhibition' will end today at Chhobir Haat in front of the Faculty of Fine Art of Dhaka University.
The exhibition is a result of a two-week workshop organised by Chhobir Haat. Eighteen artists took part in the workshop. Twenty two artworks of the 18 artists are on display.
The artworks that include paintings, sculpture, and collage, narrate the mechanical life of the city dwellers.
'Spin of Life' by Rabi Khan and 'Contemporary News Paper' by Abdul Gaffar are among the artworks that draw the attention of the viewers.
'Contemporary Newspaper', a collage, presents the regular incidents that happen regularly in the country. The other artwork titled 'Spin of Life' narrates the complicated life of the Dhaka city dwellers.
A sculpture, which is mainly crafted with wood and plastic bottles, shows that people of the city is gradually going to be depended on bottled water.
An installation titled 'Poultry Farm' is meant to ridicule the city dwellers by showing farm eggs as symbol.
The exhibition also depicts how the city dwellers are gradually becoming dependent on chemical adulterated food and entering into a mechanical life.
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Benuka celebrates 29th founding anniversary
Arif Mahmud
The cultural organisation Benuka Institute of Fine Arts arranged a cultural programme to celebrate its twenty-ninth founding anniversary at the auditorium of the National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in Segun Bagicha on Saturday.
Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy's director general Kamal Lohani, and International Theatre Institute's president Ramendu Majumder, were present as guests. Benuka Institute's general secretary Golam Mostafa Khan and the institute's president Abu Saleh also spoke at the function.
Ramendu Majumder said, 'though we are rich in the field of culture and heritage but we are deprived of a culture-friendly government. The government should be friendly and to help this field with infrastructural development by building theatre halls, rehearsal place, and stages so that cultural activities can be continued.'
Kamal Lohani said, 'Benuka has been playing the important role of pathfinder in the field of our culture. We want they would continue their work upholding the country's history, traditional heritage by their cultural activities.'
The cultural part of the function was started with a group dance performance. Members of the organisation also presented music at the function.
The main attraction of the programme was a presentation of a dance drama titled 'Bristi amar bristi'. The drama presents Bangladesh as a land of six seasons and the people, most of them farmers, of the country. The drama showed how rain plays an important role in their cultivation.
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World music festival begins in city
Cultural Correspondent
A ten-day world music festival organised by the Alliance Française began on Sunday at its compound in Dhanmondi.
Charley Causeret, ambassador of France inaugurated the festival as chief guest while Saliha Lefevre, director of the Alliance Française de Dhaka and Faizul Islam Selim, president of the Gulshan Club were present as special guests at the inauguration session.
'I am really delighted to organise such a music festival and I am sure that the music lovers of Bangladesh will be delighted by the performances of the artistes,' said Causeret.
Queen of Lalon songs, Farida Parveen sang on the inaugural day of the festival being accompanied by Devendranath Chattapadhaya on tabla and Gazi Abdul Hakim on flute. Delwar Hossain and Dawlot Rahman played mandolin and keyboard respectively.
Farida Parveen started with the song 'O pakhire ay dekhe ja' and sang some other popular numbers including 'Ei padma ei meghna'. Besides these, she sang other Lalon songs as well.
Programmes of the
festival will be open for all and viewers can collect passes from the Uttara, Baridhara and Dhanmondi branches of Alliance Française.
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R&B singer admits Rihanna assault
BBC
R&B singer Chris Brown has pleaded guilty in the US to one count of assault on his former girlfriend, pop star Rihanna.
Brown, 19, was sentenced to five years' probation and ordered to do six months of community service.
Brown had faced charges of assaulting Rihanna, 21, during a row in February.
The last-minute plea deal came before a hearing at a Los Angeles court at which Rihanna was due to give evidence. She said the sentence was 'fair'.
Brown had been facing a potential jail sentence of four years.
His sentence involves five years of supervised probation and six months of community labour, such as picking up litter or removing graffiti.
He will also have to attend courses on domestic violence.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg told him: 'I think it's commendable that you took responsibility for your conduct, sir.'
Speaking outside the court, Brown's lawyer Mark Geragos said: 'He embraces this as a chance to get the message out that domestic violence will not be tolerated. He wants to get his life back on track.'
After Brown left the courtroom, Rihanna entered and was addressed by Judge Schnegg who explained to the Barbados-born singer that she had issued a stay-away order.
The singer had not been seeking such an order, but the judge imposed one anyway.
The order requires that Brown and Rihanna stay at least 50 yards from each other, except at entertainment industry events when the distance is reduced to 10 yards.
The judge also told Rihanna it is not a one-way order - and that she, too, should not get any closer to Brown than the order allows.
Rihanna's lawyer, Donald Etra, said the singer believed it was a 'fair and just resolution' to the case.
Brown will be formally sentenced on 5 August.
Brown, whose hits include With You and No Air, was questioned by police on 8 February over a complaint of assault.
Police said he had been in an argument with an unidentified woman in a parked car in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles, which escalated after they left the vehicle.
Both Brown and Rihanna pulled out of that night's Grammy awards, where they had been due to perform.
He has since said he was 'sorry and saddened' by the incident and was seeking counselling.
After reports of the assault emerged, a photograph was posted on a US gossip website which purported to show Rihanna with welts, scratches, bruises and swelling on her face.
After it appeared, the Los Angeles Police Department launched an internal investigation and asked for the public's help in finding the person who leaked it.
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Jolie ready to adopt more children
Press Trust of India . London
Hollywood couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt plan to add more members to their rainbow family by adopting more children.
The 'Tomb Raider' actress has confirmed the speculations by saying that they would never say 'no' to adopting more children, Daily Mail reported. 'We love children, we want a big family, so we never, you know, never say no,' Jolie said in an interview to CNN.
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