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.

A week-long cultural festival featuring Mro children and members of the indigenous community from Bandarban has begun at Alliance Française de Dhaka. Titled “Pawmum Parban 2025”, the festival started today and will continue until December 24.

Veteran actor Faruk Ahmed is set to make his debut as a theatre director with “Rangmahal”, marking a new chapter in his more than four-decade-long association with Dhaka Theatre.

The nation will mark the 54th Victory Day with a comprehensive programme that combines spectacle and remembrance, featuring parachute displays, live music, theatre, television broadcasts, and community-led cultural events, all coordinated by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy and different national TV channels.

Necropolitics— a social or political power that determines who gets to live and who does not. Just the thought of this unfair monstrosity makes one shiver, doesn’t it? But it is the way of the world now. To make a bold statement against necropolitics all around the world, The University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) presented “Rupantor: The Resonance Show”, a sustainability-focused fashion and performance project that transformed discarded materials into wearable narratives, with design, movement and social reflection.

Titled “Apon Aloy Shahid Mahmud Jangi: Gaaney Gaaney Souttor,” the programme brought together musicians, writers, and cultural figures to reflect on Jangi’s contribution to Bangladeshi music. The event was organised by Ajob Karkhana.

Choudhury offered a stark diagnosis of the present. Bangladesh, he said, is moving away from the spirit of the martyred intellectuals for two reasons: a shrinking practice of history and its growing distortion; and a widening distance from the dreams and consciousness of the Liberation War.

Cultural affairs adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki inaugurated the exhibition as chief guest. Renowned artists Professor Dr Abdus Sattar and Professor Mostafizul Haque attended the event as guests of honour, while Mr Sheikh Rezauddin Ahmed, director general of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, presided over the ceremony.

The festival — a joint initiative of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU), the Mohanagar Natya Sangsad, the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and the Literary and Cultural Centre — runs from Thursday through Saturday and is timed to coincide with Victory Day commemorations.

In this series of mixed media on paper on his own native histories and legacies, Firoz Mahmud draws on the histories of his home in the Bengal region, where many communities and their cultural sites, agriculture, and industries have been transformed by constant colonisations over nearly 2,000 years. Although the rulers of the region legendarily staved off an attack by Alexander the Great in 325 BCE with a cavalcade of elephants, the people and fertile land of the greater Bengal region — spanning present-day Bangladesh and India — have endured continuous waves of military invasion and civil war, including the Islamic conquest led by the Ghurid general Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji, the Mughal annexation during the reign of Emperor Babur, the defeat of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah by the British East India Company, and later, large-scale intercontinental migrations following the Partition of Bengal along the Radcliffe Line and the subsequent Bangladesh Liberation War.

The ‘24th Young Artist Fine Arts Exhibition 2025’ opens today at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, featuring 215 artworks by 191 emerging artists from across the country.

Cast and crew of “Café de Volte” — a Hunt Inc production — pose ahead of the play’s staging on 7 and 8 December 2025 at 7:30pm at the Studio Theater Hall, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Set in the quiet yet decaying town of Jinjira, the production follows Max D’Rosario, a gifted chef whose restaurant opening becomes a battleground of conscience. Directed by Diana Merline, the show features Md Shahzada Somrat Chowdhury, Abdullah Al Zadid, Priom Majumder, Yead Khorshid Eashan, Maliha Fairuz Farin Melisa, Noor E Jannat Orisha, Supriyo Ghosh, Progga Chanda, Diana Meriline and Shuvashis Halder.

Based on a story by Smritikumar Singh, the play traces the life of Dhwajo, a master craftsman celebrated for building traditional Manipuri houses.

“The Catcher in the Rye”, a two-day exhibition held on December 5–6 at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, showcasing the artworks of children born and raised in the country’s red-light areas.

Drik Picture Library, in collaboration with the World Press Photo Foundation, has inaugurated the foundation’s 70th-anniversary exhibition titled “What Have We Done? Unpacking Seven Decades of World Press Photo” at DrikPath Bhobon in Dhaka. Curated by Spanish artist and photographer Christina Di Middel, the exhibition was previously showcased in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Groningen, the Netherlands.

Alam urged visitors to engage with the show as a site for dialogue — not just as a display of award-winning photographs — and to critically consider how visual history is shaped, framed, and contested.

The auditorium at Goethe-Institut Bangladesh turns into an unconventional stage on November 29 as “AI Mafia Boyfriend”, an experimental performance created by Katerina Don for Sister Library, unfolds before a packed audience. Instead of a conventional play, the production operates as a participatory social experiment examining loneliness, emotional labour, and the growing role of artificial intelligence in intimate life.

Galleri Kaya is set to inaugurate its latest group exhibition, “Glimpses”, marking 54 years of Bangladesh’s Independence through the works of 12 prominent contemporary and modern Bangladeshi artists.

The festival, running from December 1 to 31, will feature daily performances at 6:30 pm at the Experimental Theatre Hall. Jatra troupes from various parts of Bangladesh have registered to participate in the event.

Tom Stoppard, the playwright whose dazzling command of language reshaped modern theatre and who won an Academy Award for co-writing “Shakespeare in Love”, has died at 88, the BBC confirmed.