“We will begin with Mahabidroha and plan to stage Kallol here too,” said Shova Sen, Dutta’s wife. Since the opening, the theatre has only hosted seminars. Located at 6/1 Beadon Street, the heritage Minerva theatre was revamped by the state government at a sum of Rs 1.25 crore.

“Mahabidroha is an ode to the First War of Independence, it will be wonderful to stage it as we have just completed the 150th year of 1857,” said Sen. While Mahabidroha’s relevance is clear, staging Kallol will be a trip down the memory lane when the play had stirred a political movement leading to the arrest of Utpal Dutta.

The magazine, EPIC Theatre which was associated with the Utpal Dutta-led People’s Little Theatre, has dedicated its 2008 annual issue to the historical event. “A significant part of Dutta’s work revolved around the 1857 revolt. Hence, we decided to dedicate the issue to this landmark event of Indian history,” said Arup Mukhopadhyay, theatre critic and editor of EPIC Theatre. Launched in 1966, the EPIC Theatre magazine mirrored the ideas of the Brecht Society of India, an organisation patronised by ace filmmaker Satyajit Ray, Dutta and former finance minister Ashok Mitra, among others. With Ray as the president and Dutta as the secretary, the magazine had many significant issues to its credit.