Postdramatic Theatre and India: Theatre-Making Since the 1990s

Description

None of the Indian theatre-makers consciously built their works on the Euro-American model of the postdramatic, but many have used the theatre model in innovative, transnational ways. Essentially, they have adapted an originally European theatre paradigm to a different historical context and added new dimensions to it by cross-pollinating it with indigenous cultural forms. The main aim in doing so has been to invigorate the language of Indian urban theatre that had turned stale under the stronghold of realism growing out of colonial stage practice and homogeneous under the decolonizing drive of the ‘theatre of roots’ movement post-independence. Theatre in India today is rich in cross-media performance, theatre solos and monologues, pure spatial experience, plurimedial work, durational reading, real-time action, and so on. The book balances theory, contextualisation and praxis, building a hitherto non-existing archive of scholarship in Indian theatre within a postdramatic framework, and an argument for its place within contemporary Indian theatre. Interspersed throughout are Indian theatre-makers’ opinions about their contemporary performance theory and practices vis-a-vis those in Europe and the US. Cover Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Epigraph Contents Illustrations Acknowledgements INTRODUCTION Hans-Thies Lehmann and Since: Debates in Postdramatic Theatre and Performance Lehmann and this book The passage towards postdramatic The dramatic–postdramatic ‘binary’ The poetics of presence Postdrama and politics The chapters 1 Theorizing and Contextualizing India’s Postdramatic Adaptation as contribution Predramatic and postdramatic India’s postdramatic Occasions and contexts I Autonomous women’s movement II Cold War, globalization, theatre practice III Mediatization of society and the use of technology in theatre IV Intercultural/inter-artistic engagements, training, influences V Theatre festivals, pedagogy, entrepreneurship Endnote 2 The Non-Dramatic Turn in Indian Theatre: Early Adaptations and Devised Plays Early adaptations The Job (1996/1997) Kitchen Katha (1999/2000) Early devised productions Aur Kitne Tukde (2001) 3 India’s Postdramatic I: ‘Telling Stories Across Forms’, Theatre and the New Political, Theatre of Scenography Between the arts: ‘telling stories across forms’ Dark Horse (2006) Theatre and the new political Island of Blood (2003) Theatre of scenography Peer Gynt (2010) 4 India’s Postdramatic II: Monologies and Theatre Solos Theatre solos/monologies Maya Krishna Rao Are You Home, Lady Macbeth? (2010) Heads are Meant for Walking Into (2005) Jyoti Dogra Black Hole (2019) 5 India’s Postdramatic III: Theatre-as-Event, Reality Theatre, Theatre Installations Theatre-as-event Reality theatre The Antigone Project (2003/2004) Theatre installations Some Stage Directions for Henrik Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman (2009) and Propositions: On Text and Space I (2010) Active Space (2012) 6 Activism in India’s Postdramatic Theatre Work in Progress: A Nationalism Project (2018) Dark Things (2018/2019) Conclusion Postdrama and Theatre-Making in India References Index