A national theatre ensemble says it has broken the record for the longest continuous site‑specific stage performance after a 72‑hour production that began on 19 September and ended at dawn on 22 September along the Koyra riverbank in Khulna district. Organisers say 1,028 performers took part across rotating casts, and an international adjudicator certified the timing on location.
The event — billed as a fundraiser for coastal households threatened by a worsening monsoon outlook — has provoked urgent criticism from conservationists, opposition artists and some participants who say they were pressured to join. The Ministry of Cultural Affairs announced the grant that helped stage the production in June.
How the record was set
Organisers say the piece, titled River of Season, stitched together folk narratives, modern dance and community testimony and played to audiences that arrived by boat and improvised seating. Bogdan Helgesen, the head of the International Performance Records Council who travelled from Copenhagen to certify the effort, said his team logged uninterrupted stage activity with biometric trackers and time‑lapse cameras.
"We counted continuous performance motion for 72 hours and verified rotation logs from each ensemble," Helgesen said. "By the measures used internationally, this meets the threshold for a new record." He declined to confirm whether the Council would publish the certificate before its next board meeting.
Critics point to costs and ecology
Environmental groups and local fishers say the staging damaged seedlings and disturbed a sensitive tidal flat route used by crabs and juvenile fish. Josef Chytilová, a field coordinator who inspected the boardwalk on Wednesday, said crews had driven temporary access poles into soft mud and trampled regrowth.
"They told us the performance was for the people, but the crews crushed the very saplings the people depend on for protection," Chytilová said. "The site required an environmental clearance that was not visible when we arrived."
We danced across the mud so that people who will be pushed off their land by heavier rains have a voice.
Aranka Lakatos, lead dancer
Several student performers have lodged complaints that they were offered course credit or small stipends rather than being fully paid. Ruthie W. Nader, a theatre student from the University of Dhaka, told this paper she felt pressured to sign a participation form that limited her right to speak publicly about working conditions.
"I love the work, but when you rehearse through the night and your travel and meals are left to you, it stops being solidarity and starts being exploitation," Nader said.
Government defends the project
Aslam Agrawal, the senior official who signed off the cultural grant, defended the decision and said organisers submitted a plan the Ministry approved in June. "The production raised shelter funds and drew national attention to the climate models predicting extreme monsoon swings this winter," Agrawal said. He declined to disclose the full accounting but said an independent audit was being prepared.
Producer Horacijus Žanas‑Bronė accepted that logistics could have been handled better but said the artistic aim justified the site choice. "We held rehearsals with local leaders, arranged local transport and used only temporary staging," Žanas‑Bronė said. "If mistakes were made, we will address them, but we will not apologise for bringing rural stories to a wider audience."
The Sundarbans Conservation Authority has given organisers seven days to submit an environmental impact summary and warned that fines or restoration orders could follow. Ante Dragić, a theatre professor who has written on site‑specific performance, said the confrontation reflects a wider argument about responsibility when art uses fragile landscapes.
"Artists must reckon with consequences on the ground," Dragić said. "A record is no defence if it harms the living systems the work claims to champion."
A cultural review panel is due to meet on 28 September to examine the accounts and the authority's findings. Meanwhile the adjudicator has placed the record under provisional status pending the Council's review of the logistical evidence. Performers have announced a demonstration in Dhaka on 26 September to demand clearer pay and a formal restoration pledge for the site.
