3rd edition · 3–7 September 2025 · Guwahati
Bhullung-Bhuthur International Theatre Festival 2025
Theme: Theatre for Harmony
The third edition of BBITF brought artists, scholars and theatre practitioners from South Korea, Romania, Tunisia, Croatia, Sri Lanka and India to Guwahati for five days of performances, a physical theatre workshop, a theatre forum and an environmental programme on the Brahmaputra.
Dates
3–7 September 2025
Venue
Sri Sri Madhavadeva International Auditorium, Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra, Panjabari, Guwahati
Chief guest
Jinyoung Youn, Chair, International Relations Committee, Korea Theatre Association
Organised by
AANK_A Creative Line, in association with the Cultural Affairs Department and the Directorate of Cultural Affairs, Government of Assam
About the festival
BBITF 2025 continued its guiding theme, “Theatre for Harmony”, drawing on the Brahmaputra as a metaphor for cultural flow, coexistence, resilience and ecological continuity. The festival was inaugurated on 3 September 2025 by Jinyoung Youn, Chair of the International Relations Committee of the Korea Theatre Association.
Three publications were released at the inaugural ceremony: Aesthetics of Theatre: A Spectator’s Perspective by Dr Mrinal Jyoti Goswami, the edited collection From Canvas to Stage, and Theatre Mosaic, which became the annual festival souvenir of BBITF from 2025.
Performances
Contemporary monodrama, physical theatre, movement-based performance and folklore-inspired work, every evening at the Sri Sri Madhavadeva International Auditorium.
The Girl Who Rode a Bicycle
SURJYA
A devised solo performance adapted from Naren Patgiri’s Assamese play Saikel Saluwa Sowalijoni. Through two narrators it presents slices from the life of Chandraprabha Saikia, freedom fighter and advocate of women’s rights, holding to one line of thought: the independence of women and the independence of a nation.
Original Assamese play: Naren Patgiri
English dramaturgy: Dr Manabendra Sarma
Design and direction: Nayan Prasad
On stage: Namrata Sarma
#NotMe
Tony Bulandra Theater
A one-woman show devised by the actress and the director and inspired by Samuel Beckett’s Not I. An isolated woman tries to reclaim her life by confronting her past, in a mosaic of short scenes, projections and sound about isolation, abuse and dissociation.
Director: Casandra Topologeanu
Performer: Andreea Tănase
After
Sangsangchangkko
Dramatic physical theatre with video mapping, music and objects. Ryu, a man isolated from the world by a shock in childhood, learns to keep living after facing death.
Design and direction: Kim So Jung
It’s Not Me, Someone Else
Abhiranga Theatre
A young woman imprisoned for stabbing her mother insists that it was not her but someone else like her. Sent for psychiatric treatment, she escapes and makes a public confession in a play.
Writer, choreographer and director: D. Randika T. Wimalasuriya
A Journey of Despair
Independent artists, Sri Lanka
A monodrama without spoken dialogue about a young woman facing an unplanned pregnancy, rejection and isolation, told through movement, light, projection and sound.
Writer: E.K.J.R. Jayathunga
Director: Upeksha Lankathilaka
On stage: Nayanthara de Silva
Palunko’s Wife
Triko Cirkus Teatar
The nameless wife from the fairytale Fisherman Palunko and his Wife wakes to find her family gone and returns to her old life as a circus artist. A comic, wordless piece with aerial acrobatics about balancing work, family and self.
Based on a tale by: Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić
Dramaturg: Marija Antić
Director and performer: Iva Peter-Dragan
The Immigrants
Art of the Two Banks
Sławomir Mrożek’s play about two immigrants from an unnamed country who share a room on a festive night. While celebrations go on upstairs, the two men quarrel through the night, revealing the loneliness, hostility and need that bind them.
Author: Sławomir Mrożek
Director: Hafedh Khalifa
Dummy
Sarathchandra Walpola
A prisoner on the run hides in a clothes shop and falls in love with a female mannequin. A wordless mono play about a human being and a lifeless object, and about consumer society and its victims.
Playwright, design and direction: Sarathchandra Walpola
On stage: Samitha Sudeeshwara
Unseen
Asanka Ishan Dayapala
A psycho-monodrama about an autistic woman who, on what she has decided will be her last day, tells her story for the first time, and finds the courage to live unmasked.
Script and direction: Asanka Ishan Dayapala
Performer: Tasmin Anthonisz
Metamorphosis of Mitrachi Goshta
AANK_A Creative Line
A psycho-physical reimagining of Vijay Tendulkar’s Mitrachi Goshta that places Mitra’s own voice at the centre, and asks what might have been if she had lived, or if she were born today.
Playwright and director: Dr Mrinal Jyoti Goswami
Culmination, 7 September
Artistic Pair Yoga Demonstration
Led by Dr Hridayananda Tamuli Phukan and his students: yogic movement, rhythm and stillness presented as a dialogue between bodies.
The Fivefold Melody of Emotions
A 30-minute musical journey through five folk traditions of Assam: Karbi Chamangkan, Mising Kaban, Rabha Farkanthi, Goalpariya Geet and Bihu. Written by Dr Mrinal Jyoti Goswami, arranged by Arup Jyoti Patgiri (Bapi) and presented by alumni of AT 4 Boys’ Hall, Gauhati University.
Physical Theatre Workshop
Embodied Voices: The Craft of Physical Expression on Stage
4–6 September 2025 · six sessions
Theatre Forum, 4 September
Sponsorship, Sustainability and Survival: Rethinking Theatre Funding Models
Artists, scholars and theatre practitioners from six countries discussed funding, international mobility, festival sustainability and the role of networks such as the New World Theatre Network. Moderator: Jinyoung Youn (South Korea).
Environmental Sensitization Programme, 6 September
Brahmaputra River: Its Natural and Cultural Heritage
A talk by Dr Partha Jyoti Das, Head of the Water, Climate and Hazard Division, Aaranyak, on the ecological, cultural and civilisational importance of the Brahmaputra.
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