BotTala to stage new production ‘Jojongondha Maya’
BotTala Theatre Company will debut its 25th production, "Jojongondha Maya" (Fragrance of Longing Miles), at the Experimental Theatre Hall of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on November 27 at 7:30pm. Two more shows will follow on November 28, at 5 pm and 7:30pm. Advance tickets are available through the troupe's website.
Written by acclaimed playwright Badruzzaman Alamgir and directed by Imran Khan Munna, "Jojongondha Maya" explores the cost of conflict for those who rarely hold power yet bear the most severe consequences. The play follows a mother searching for her missing child—an intimate narrative set against the broader politics of war and its aftermath.
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Alamgir describes the play as a reflection on the uneven burdens that societies place on their most vulnerable members. He notes that during conflict, "leaders supply weapons, the affluent secure provision, and the poor send their children to fight." He adds that once the fighting ends, "politicians embrace rival leaders, markets inflate to recoup subsidies, and the poor are left to search for the graves of the sons they lost." For him, "'Jojongondha Maya' is a story of that searching."
Director Imran Khan Munna first encountered the script in September 2023 through actress Samina Luthfa Nitra. He said the story's emotional core guided his approach to staging it. "There is an odd shade of grief in this play," he said. "A mother waits for her child; an entire community waits for liberation. I was drawn to the mother's vigil for her missing son."
The cast includes Samina Luthfa Nitra, Mohammad Ali Haider, Kazi Roksana Ruma, Golam Mahbub Masum, Monira Khatun Srishti, Mun Islam, Niranjan Das, Ashraful Islam Ashru, and Shahadat Hossain, among others. The creative team features Palash Nath Lochan and Chandravati Eva on music direction, Mohsina Akter on costumes, and Dhiman Chandra Barman on lighting.
Onstage, the production places personal grief against the wider collective silence that often follows political upheaval. "Jojongondha Maya" asks whether promised freedom—so often invoked during conflict—ever materialises for those left waiting long after the headlines fade.
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