Versatile theatre personality Byomakesh Tripathy’s 13 plays compiled into a set of five volumes will be released on September 22 here. These volumes also carry three plays translated by him into Odia- two Greek plays and one Sanskrit play. These plays were very popular in the 60s, 70s and 80s.
The plays covered are (1) Ek-Duei-Teen (2) Raja Mukuta (3) KanshaKabata (5) Singh D ara (5) Jagarana (6) TolaKania (7) AkhandaJyoti (8)SunaPharua (9) MatiraSwarga (10) HemaHarini (11) Gopana Katha (12) Sati Pari hya (13) Sri Krushna lila. His translations are (1) King Oe ipus (2) Angigone and (3) Mudra Rakhyasa.
Byomakesh had written a number of plays from 1959 to 1980. Each play was an experiment. Some were satirical and some critical, but each play strongly gave a message of truth, honesty and purity of life. His plays dealt with various burning issues like corruption, prostitution, injustice to women etc besides covering mythological and historical subjects.
He directed almost 68 plays and acted in many of these. Byomakesh was also described as Satyajit Ray of Odisha- great compliments rarely given to any theater artists of Odisha. He was a rare person who had written as well directed many famous plays. He was a stylish actor, and most importantly had introduced many new stagecraft techniques, never seen before on the Odisha stage. He had also ventured into the Odia film industry and acted in a few Odia films besides giving direction in some.
Professor Raj Kishore Ray called Byomakesh as Gordon Craig (1872-1966) of Odisha. Craig was a famous English actor, director and modernist theater practitioner who had introduced many new concepts in stagecraft. He had also written scripts for films and songs for theatre - a combination rarely found in Odisha in any artists. As a leading theatre personality Byomakesh was also asked to showcase few of his plays in Bhubaneswar, by a leading Odia daily. He was also asked by Doordarshan, to make a documentary on the history of Odisha Theater, on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of India’s Independence in 1997.