Nemesis (Momen play)

Nemesis (Bengali: নেমেসিস, Greek: Νέμεσις) is a play written by Nurul Momen, considered the foremost and one of the most successful experimental plays in Bangla theatre. It is a play with only one character, written in 1944 and published as a book in 1948. It is one of the earliest one-character plays in the history of world theatre. It is a predecessor of, what is known today as, One Person Show. Nemesis, a tragedy, set a milestone in the history of Bengali plays because of its unique feature and modern plot. National professor of Bangladesh Kabir Chowdhury 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 and Jean Cocteau in the entire history of world theater. In fact, the two plays Rupantor and Nemesis by Nurul Momen, ushered in the modernism of theatre of East Bengal, subsequently called East Pakistan and finally becoming the independent Bangladesh.

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 his lifelong love Sulota, daughter of the dishonest, affluent Nripen Bose. Nripen gives Surojit an ultimatum that if he [Surojit] can 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 goddess of vengeance.