Most liberal secular intellectuals have felt the urgent need to stand up and be counted at one time or another in the course of the past twelve months. We may […]

The Action Players last presented a regular show in Calcutta in 1989 (Satyajit Ray’s Patol Babu, Film Star), so expectations ran high for Dancing Dolphins, premiered on September 4 at

As if the Indian-English sex comedies starring Pooja Bedi are not bad enough, we now have the fantastic prospect of ersatz Tamasha entertainments rendered in English by a grande dame

One criterion that separates an accomplished theatre group from an average one is versatility. On the basis of Mahānirvān, we can say that Ensemble, now in its tenth year, has

Revivalism in the theatre does have its charms. Normally a retrogressive procedure, it sometimes has benefits, permitting later generations to savour the working methods of major senior directors. When the

Ninety years old, K. Shivarama Karanth embodies the Yakshagana folk theatre of Karnataka. It is through his indefatigable efforts that Yakshagana reached respectability in Indian culture, so Natya Shodh Sansthan

The supper theatre sweepstakes (or should one say steaks?) are on. Taj Bengal initiated the latest upmarket fad with Love Letters from Bombay, but the battle has been joined by

Ionesco’s categorical dismissal of explicitly political theatre as inherently totalitarian and inartistic has probably led to his unfortunate neglect at the hands of Indian directors, despite the fact that he

You have to hand it to Open Theatre for trying to break out of the staid parameters that constrict “intellectual” Bengali theatre, so morbidly afraid of radical experimentation of any

The latest productions by two very young Bengali groups show that at least some among the new generation are conscious of their rich theatrical heritage. Ushnik’s Kamal Kāmini (Sisir Mancha,

In the true spirit of provincial rebellion against the centre, Northern Broadsides’ The Merry Wives (presented by British Council and Standard Chartered at Birla Sabhagar, November 29) makes a political

The controversial play by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Duhsamay, long a work (or should one say production) in progress, has finally reached its approved incarnation. Now clocking in at one and a