Govt to construct international standard theatre complex

The government has a plan to construct an international standard theatre complex as there is no such hall in the country for producing good stage dramas, said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday.

"My pain is that there's no international standard theatre complex having all modern facilities in Bangladesh… we want to construct one," she said.

The prime minister was speaking at the inaugural programme of newly constructed Bangladesh Mahila Samity Complex Building on the capital's Bailey Road.

Hasina said she had talked to the finance minister in this connection. "The finance minister is very much interested in it, and he said there would be no fund problem."

The prime minister said she had chosen a place for the theatre hall. "We can build it there," she said without mentioning its name.

Hasina mentioned that the theatre hall could be built at the proposed convention centre just beside the Padma River on completion of the Padma Bridge. "We'll build a complex with that convention centre and the theatre hall can be built there."

The premier said its stage would move automatically and there would be no need to change the set repeatedly.

Hasina mentioned that whenever she went outside the country she tried to go to any theatre. "I saw helicopter landing on the stage, train passing through the stage. This is the age of digital technology… this is not a tough job to do, but in our country there is no theatre like that."

The prime minister said she saw modern theatre halls in Trinidad Tobago. "And we won't have such a hall… this cannot be… once we had some constrains, we've overcome those… gone are the days."

Presided over by Social Welfare Secretary Dr Chowdhury M Babul Hasan, the function was addressed, among others, by Bangladesh Mahila Samity President Sitara Ahsanullah and Samity general secretary Tania Bakht.