A CRITICAL OVERVIEW OF THE EVOLUTION OF INDIAN THEATRE AND THE DEPICTION OF FEMINIST CONCERNS (original) (raw)

Indian writers have written excellent prose, composed poems and written in English for more than a century, but it was not earlier than the thirties and forties that a suitable and systematic attempt was made to view their output as an independent literature and not a mere part of Anglo-Indian literature. It is, however, only after Independence that the volume of Indian writing in English has gone up considerably, and the need for its critical evaluation has become more urgent than ever before. When it comes to the early form of theatre, it featured various kinds of performances, often in the narrative form with singing, dancing, and reciting. The first significant contribution to Indian theatre was made by Bharata Muni, who authored the thirty-six books of "The Natyashastra". It is a theoretical description of theatrical performance, elucidating its style and motion. While the amateur movement gave way to the drama school theatre, towards the turn of the century, some existing active troupes turned into semi-professional drama schools with the help of amateurs. They continued to keep the theatre scene operative. Prayoga Ranga (Bangalore), Lokadharmi (Kochi) and Sopanam (Trivandrum) are examples of this trend. This article attempts to encapsulate the evolutional of Indian literary landscape with special emphasis on the evolution and growth of theatre and women playwrights. Traditionally women have never had, nor were allowed a voice of their own. "Because a woman has patience, she is not allowed to speak; And she never learns the words" is said by the narrator in the play Mangalam by Poile Sengupta. One of the major concerns of this study is to analyse a new trend in theatre-the Theatre of Protest and showcase its relevance in the plays of Poile Sengupta, one of the foremost contemporary Indian playwrights.