Curtain call | Ananda Lal's 'Centrestage: Essays on Theatre, Indian and Intercultural'
This collection of nine essays by Ananda Lal traces the early history of Indian Theatre and its modern avatars
With ageing infrastructure and little patronage, theatre in India has been treated as a forgotten, unwanted child for decades. This, in turn, is reflected in the dearth of meaningful writing on Indian theatre. Centrestage fills in that lacuna with deep research and insights. A former professor of English at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Ananda Lal has spent the better part of the past five decades reviewing theatre productions, besides being a prominent theatre director himself.
With ageing infrastructure and little patronage, theatre in India has been treated as a forgotten, unwanted child for decades. This, in turn, is reflected in the dearth of meaningful writing on Indian theatre. Centrestage fills in that lacuna with deep research and insights. A former professor of English at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Ananda Lal has spent the better part of the past five decades reviewing theatre productions, besides being a prominent theatre director himself.
Lal divides the book into two distinct parts, the first delving into the influence that the English language has had on Indian theatre. He examines three English plays—The Persecuted, Rizia and Kaminee—written by Indian playwrights in the early nineteenth century. He carefully details his research on everything, from the performances to audience receptions, while highlighting the lack of record-keeping, documentation and archival material.
The second part of this collection focuses on intercultural theatre and the challenges presented by the sub-genre, both in India and globally. Lal briefly discusses the plagiarism of western works by adapting these stories to Indian milieus; he juxtaposes this with examples of Indian performing arts (dance, yoga, mythology) being appropriated by the West. In what might arguably be the most interesting chapter of this book, Lal introduces the reader to the theory and practice of intercultural Indian drama, followed by a treatise on Peter Brook’s Mahabharata and an interview with the director conducted in 1989 during his visit to Kolkata. One of the most interesting experiments in the space, Lal talks about the differences in audience reactions to the play in India and the West, and how stripping away the culture from the story might have something to do with it.
