Imagine this. On a chilly winter night, you, along with a few hundred other people, are sitting around an
āsar(performance space) made of a pavilion, no more than a 12-foot-square area, situated at the centre of a public space in a village in Bangladesh. At each of the four corners of the pavilion stand bamboo poles that support a flat shade of date-palm leaves on top. Two gas pressure lamps burn at two bamboo posts diagonally across from one another. Illuminated thus, a group of eight male performers are presenting
mādār pīrer gān, a form of indigenous performance of Bangladesh. The choral singer/orchestra are sitting in a tight circle at the centre, singing the refrain of a song. Around them the lead narrator and two female impersonators are dancing in what appears to be an…
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Citation: Ahmed, Syed Jamil. "Indigenous Theatre in Bangladesh". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 August 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19585, accessed 21 November 2024.]
