''Nemesis'' () is a play written by

Natyaguru Nurul Momen (25 November 1908 – 16 February 1990) was a Bangladeshi playwright, educator, director, broadcast personality, orator, humorist, dramatist, academician, satirist, belletrist, essayist, columnist, translator and poet.Bangla Natyasha ...

Nurul Momen, considered one of the most successful experimental plays in

Bengali theatre Bengali theatre primarily refers to theatre performed in the Bengali language. Bengali theatre is produced mainly in West Bengal, and in Bangladesh. The term may also refer to some Hindi theatres which are accepted by the Bengali people. Be ...

. It is a play with only one character, written in 1944 and published in the acclaimed literary journal "Shonibarer Chithi" in 1945 & as a book in 1948. ''Nemesis'', a tragedy, set a milestone in the history of

Bengali literature Bengali literature () denotes the body of writings in the Bengali language and which covers Old Bengali, Middle Bengali and Modern Bengali with the changes through the passage of time and dynastic patronization or non-patronization. Bengali h ...

because of its unique feature and modern plot. National professor of Bangladesh

Kabir Chowdhury Kabir Chowdhury (9 February 1923 – 13 December 2011) was a Bangladeshi academic, essayist, materialist, translator, cultural worker and civil society activist. Early life and education Chowdhury was born in Brahmanbaria of the then Tippera ...

explains, “Nemesis is his (Nurul Momen's) most famous work. It is an experimental drama where through dialogues the main and only character remembers his past. It shows how a promising personality falls prey to greed and loses his morality. Though it is a play based on one actor, the scope of the plot is wide and a number of other characters come in through the main character's reminiscences.” It was also the first experimental Bengali play, as ''Nemesis'' contains only one character. This experiment was done earlier than Nurul Momen only by

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...

and

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

in the entire history of world theater.

The Fourth Unity

In 1944, the Bengal playwright

Nurul Momen, introduced the fourth unity in his pioneering tragedy play,

Nemesis In ancient Greek religion and myth, Nemesis (; ) also called Rhamnousia (or Rhamnusia; ), was the goddess who personified retribution for the sin of hubris: arrogance before the gods. Etymology The name ''Nemesis'' is derived from the Greek ...

. In this epoch-making one character play (in other words, "

Monodrama A monodrama is a theatrical or operatic piece played by a single actor or singer, usually portraying one character. In opera In opera, a monodrama was originally a melodrama with one role such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau's '' Pygmalion'', which w ...

), Nurul Momen immaculately maintained all the three Aristotelian unities of classical Greek theatre --- and added the fourth unity for the first time in world theatre. In the preface of

the

wrote, " In this play a fourth Unity is added to the traditional three unities of The Greek Tragedies -- Time, Space & Action. A new experimentation has been done by introducing a new unity --- "Unity of Person" despite maintaining the format of The three unities. " In fact, the two plays ''Rupantor'' and ''Nemesis'' by Nurul Momen, ushered in the modernism of theatre of

East Bengal East Bengal (; ''Purbô Bangla/Purbôbongo'') was the eastern province of the Dominion of Pakistan, which covered the territory of modern-day Bangladesh. It consisted of the eastern portion of the Bengal region, and existed from 1947 until 195 ...

, subsequently called

East Pakistan East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, wit ...

and finally becoming the independent

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. Before ''Nemesis'' only a few playwrights had attempted a one-character play, but none had the full form of a play continuing for one and a half hours without break. Nurul Momen did not only adorn the play with witty dialogues, but also made the character recite poems and even sing. His conversations over the phone, with neighbours, with his conscience and lastly with his murderer is drawn in such an ingenious way that the absence of these characters on the stage is never felt. Not for once the audience can get bored because of the unpredictable turn of the events cleverly knitted in the plot. Written against the backdrop of Bengal famine of the early 1940s, ''Nemesis'' depicts the moral predicaments of a middle-class schoolteacher Surojit Nandi. Surojit married Sulota, daughter of the dishonest, affluent Nripen Bose. Nripen gives Surojit an ultimatum that if he urojitcan not earn five hundred thousand Taka within three months, he won't accept the latter's marriage to his daughter. Surojit is left with no other option but to undertake several unethical actions. Eventually he wants to break free from the wrong path but he is denied by ''Nemesis'', the Greek goddess of retribution and vengeance.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nemesis Bengali-language plays Bangladeshi drama 1948 plays Theatre in Bangladesh Bangladeshi plays

The Fourth Unity

See also

References