‘Death of an Orange’: A performative reading and panel discussion.

Please register here for the SOAS CTS event on 27 October 2022. 

Abstract

Jibanananda Das (b.1899), was one of Bengal’s most prolific poets, until he met with his untimely death at the age of fifty-five, felled by a tram on the streets of Kolkata. A solitary introvert who grappled with the challenges of the times in which he lived and the cold reception to his radical work, he would go on to achieve cult status, inspiring generations of modern Bengali writers. Today he is revered throughout Bangladesh and West Bengal. And yet, he remains hardly known to the outside world.

Death of An Orange, by acclaimed Bangladeshi author Shahaduz Zaman, brings the life and work of Jibanananda Das to a Western stage for the first time. Translated from Bengali by Amy Parsons and directed under Mukul Ahmed, the play was first shown in 2021, and runs its extended version this year at the Bloomsbury Festival and the Tower Hamlets Season of Bengali Drama. 

This event will feature a performative reading by the cast of the play (from ‘Mukul and Ghetto Tigers’), followed by a panel discussion on ‘Translating Bengali for the Stage’. 

About the speakers

Mukul Ahmed is a Bangladeshi born theatre director, and director of the theatre group ‘Mukul and Ghetto Tigers’. He divides his time between East London and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Amy Parsons is a UK based translator of Bengali to English, and a Teaching Fellow in Bengali at SOAS University. She lectures in Bengali at the SOAS Language Centre. 

Shahaduz Zaman is a prolific Bengali writer, with more than thirty books to his name. In 2016 he was the recipient of the Bangla Academy Award for his services to literature. Zaman resides in the UK, and is currently Professor in Medical Anthropology and Global Health at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School.