Van Gogh helps bag an award

Out of 136 plays across the country, Dr Satyabrata Rout’s play Tumhaara Vincent was the one that won him the Mohan Rakesh Samman award for the best playwright of the year.

Satyabrata, an associate professor in the Department of Theatre Arts at SN School of Arts and Communication, UoH, didn’t once think that the play would win him this prestigious award. “While taking a class on design and direction in theatre, I decided to bring in a practical element, so I took a painting of artist Vincent Van Gogh and analysed his work. Post that class, we decided to create a play, a dramatic text based on the life and work of Van Gogh,” says Satyabrata.

But, it was while going through a newspaper that Satyabrata chanced upon the competition held by the Sahitya Kala Parishad. He then sent in his entry. After a while, he was informed that his play won the award. “It came as a surprise, but writing the script wasn’t easy. I never realised that I sort of isolated myself from everything around me. My family felt like Van Gogh’s spirit had actually taken over me,” he says with a laugh.

Currently in Uttarakhand, he says. “I will be receiving the award at a ceremony in October, where I will also stage the play. I am in Uttarakhand for a demonstration of the play. Since I wanted a very experienced team of actors, I got in touch with a few theatre personalities here and we will be doing a trial run for the play,” he says.