A silent but loud appeal was emanated, on the valedictory day of two-day Mime Theatre Festival in Agartal, urging the new generation to be involved with mime theatre – the root of which dates back to ancient period.
The Mime Theatre Festival was organized with the financial assistance of the Cultural Affairs Ministry of the Government of India and with the initiative of ‘Sur Pancham’ of Agartala and enthralled the audience with its power of silence and expressions.
On the last day of the festival today, The Kanglei Repertory Group of Manipur presented their performance which was directed by mime artist Sadanand Singh.
Besides, Kolkata’s famous mime artist Subhendu Mukherjee highlighted several issues through his electrifying mime performance.
Artists of Sur Pancham also presented mime performances on the role of trees in protecting the environment and the harmful aspects of mobile use which were directed by Mime artist Jayant Bhowmik.
A three-day workshop on mime theatre, as part of the Utsav, started on Wednesday.
Earlier, Speaker Ratan Chakraborty inaugurated the Festival on Thursday. In his inaugural speech, Ratan Chakraborty described the Mime as a ‘silent art’ that is a theatrical technique of acting and communicating without words, using only gesture, facial expression, and movement.
He said, “Mime is an ancient art with its roots in the early periods of Greeks and Romans. However, mime flourished in France so much so that mime schools were established all over France. Soon, a great tradition of French mime was established and followed”.
Chakraborty continued to focus on the history of mime theatre and said, Jean-Gaspard Baptiste Deburau introduced Mime in Paris in 1911.
Padmashree awardee mime artist Niranjan Goswami was also present in the programme as the Guest of Honor and spoke on the occasion. The programme was chaired by president of Sur Pancham, Subrata Chakraborty.
Among others, Sangeet Natok Akademi awardee mime artist Moinul Haque and mime artist of the State Jayanta Bhowmik were present in the programme.
In the two-day long programme, mime artists from Tripura, Manipur, Assam and West Bengal took part.
