The festival opened with Kathak Nritya Shamproday’s dance drama “Prasanga 47”, written and directed by Saju Ahmed. On Wednesday, the troupe also staged “Shree Radhar Manvanjan”, another dance drama directed by Ahmed, further anchoring the festival in narrative-driven classical expression.

“Neel Moyurer Jouban”, adapted from Selina Hossain’s novel, unfolds less as a conventional play and more as a folk-epic meditation on Bangladesh’s never-ending search for identity.

On Tuesday afternoon, December 23, when the gates of Chhayanaut opened, it was clear this would not be a routine cultural programme, rather a peaceful cultural protest titled “Gaane Gaane Songhoti Samabesh”, as a large crowd gathered to show solidarity in response to recent attacks on cultural spaces and growing concerns over freedom of expression.

The two shows will be held on December 24 and 25 at 7 pm at the Studio Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.

When cultural institutions crumble, archives burn, and instruments shatter, it is not merely walls that vanish—it is memory, identity, and moral courage. Culture cannot be revised; it is what history has written. Every assault upon it shakes the quiet foundations of a nation’s conscience.

The festival concludes on Saturday with Mahuya Manjari Sunanda performing Rabindranath Tagore’s lesser-known “Bhanga Gaan”.

The organisers said the programme seeks to reaffirm the role of music and culture as powerful tools of protest, resilience, and communal harmony in the face of intolerance.

There are exhibitions you walk into, and there are exhibitions that feel like you are stepping across a threshold into someone else’s world. “Pawmum Parban”, currently underway at Alliance Française de Dhaka, unfolds like the latter; carrying a depth that quietly rearranges how you look at a culture you thought you vaguely knew. I went in expecting an art show and left with the sense that a small group of children from the hills had succeeded in doing something the city often fails at: making us feel something beyond our own noise.

Anuswar Theatre is bringing back its acclaimed production “Mahashunye Cycle” with a fresh run at the Nilima Ibrahim Auditorium of Bangladesh Mohila Samity, a year after its stage debut. The play will be performed seven times over four consecutive days, from December 24 to 27.

Nearly every room was vandalised, property was looted, and parts of the building were set on fire. Police and army personnel arrived shortly after the incident, brought the situation under control, and extinguished the flames. Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were also present at the scene.

Within the scarred walls of Chhayanaut, the repair of a broken harmonium is more than a maintenance task, it is an act of institutional defiance.

The theatre festival will continue until December 26. Plays will be staged every evening at the main auditorium of the National Theatre Hall of Shilpakala Academy.

The Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy has announced that all previously scheduled events and exhibitions will resume from December 21, 2025, following the conclusion of the state mourning period.

Bangladesh Udichi Shilpigoshthi took to the streets of the capital this morning, staging a protest march and rally to condemn the arson attack on its central office—an assault that, the organisation says, has wiped out 55 years of cultural archives and struck at the heart of the country’s progressive movement.

A photography-based platform, Chobir Golpo, has announced a nationwide photography competition titled “The story of returning home after 17 years”, centring on BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman’s return to the country.

Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy has announced the suspension of all its programmes and exhibitions, citing security risks

Young artist Khing Shai Mong Marma, who has long been engaged in artistic practice and has participated in numerous group exhibitions at home and abroad, is set to inaugurate his first solo painting exhibition, titled “Rowa Daw,” in Bandarban on Friday at 4 pm.

The narrative insists that this is not an isolated story. It could unfold in any country, any city.

A group photography exhibition documenting the life, culture and traditions of the Manipuri community in Bangladesh opened at the Bishwo Shahitto Kendro Art Gallery in Banglamotor on December 12.

Munier Chowdhury, Syed Waliullah, Nurul Momen and Sayeed Ahmed were already testing the limits of expression through plays such as “Kabar”, “Bohipir”, “Nemesis”, “Kalbela” and “Trishna”. Politics haunted these works, but repression kept them from fully unfolding.