Contemporary Indian Drama: Astride Two Traditions

Contemporary Indian Drama: Astride Two Tradition is a collection of twenty-two essays, an interview and a few poems translated from Hindi on Metatheatre that bring in a large variety of issues related to dramaturgy, interpretative processes and directorial interventions. Divided into three sections, the first focuses on theoretical and historical perspectives, contextualised with reference to contemporary Indian drama in English and English translations. This is followed by an interlude which consists of the interview and poems. In the third section, the writers move on to individual writers and text covering the thematic thrusts as well as dramatic experimentation, the use of history, myth and folk forms. The works of the dramatists like Sadhu Binning and Uma Parmeswaran (the Indian Diaspora), Nissim Ezekiel, Dina Mehta, Gurcharan Das, Cyrus Mistry, Manjula Padamnabhan and Mahesh Dattani (the Indian dramatists writing in English), Badal Sircar, Mahasweta Devi, Vijay Tendulkar and Girish Karnad have been explored. Contemporary Indian Drama works with two literary and cultural traditions-the Oriental and the Western-and it moves from the page to the stage. The book will be of interest to the theatre lovers, the researchers and the general reader.