TDR: The Drama Review

This formidable volume edited by Amal Allana and published by the National School of Drama (NSD) in association with Niyogi Books covers the vast expanse of contemporary Indian theatre, “across a span of some 150 years” from the dawn of realism in the 1850s to the early 2000s (xviii). As if to represent the immense trajectory that she is covering, the editor includes a vast range of materials to weave the narrative of the act of becoming. For Allana, firsthand accounts from actors are the foundation for further scholarship on Indian theatre. The accounts collated in this volume, according to Allana, “carry the amazing, bristling energy of people who are in the ‘act’ of creating something, making history, so that the story of contemporary Indian theatre then is seen to be in a constant state of ‘becoming’” (xviii). Reflective essays, memoirs, autobiographical writings, interviews, and critical essays all find their place within the covers of this impressively designed and lavishly produced volume with its glossy pages and multiple reproductions of photos and paintings.

Allana attempts to elucidate the sociohistorical “imperatives that have driven and had a bearing on the contemporary theatre movement” (xvii). Focusing on actors, according to Allana, allows history to come alive, since the words of actors “are laden with layers of felt and lived experience” (xvii). Allana divides the volume into three sections: “Staging Desire,” “Staging the Nation,” and “Staging Hybridities.” These correspond with three of the most definitive moments in the history of modern Indian theatre: the introduction of European realism and the beginning of modern Indian theatre, the rise of communism and a people’s theatre movement immediately before and after Indian independence in 1947, and finally the consolidation of a contemporary Indian theatre. Each segment is preceded by an introductory chapter that explains the sociocultural and political climate of the time period. The depth of Allana’s research and her lucid writing style are clearly demonstrated in these introductory essays.

The first section celebrates the erstwhile greats of modern Indian theatre. Allana tells us that, “Theatre, like the newspaper, became a forum where controversial, social, and national issues of import could be played out in materialised form” during the middle of the 19th century after the British had consolidated their rule over much of the Indian subcontinent (11). The eclectic selection that follows introduces the reader to a variety of influences and styles, which resulted in the eventual hybrid modern Indian theatre.

The second section of the book, “Staging the Nation,” picks up the narrative of Indian theatre around and immediately after Indian independence. In the introduction to this section, Allana reminds us of the dominant trends in Indian performance: Rabindranath Tagore’s nritya natyas (dance-dramas) and the contemporary dance practice of Uday Shankar and his collaborator [End Page 162] Zohra Segal. Allana finds echoes of Tagore’s theatre work in Shankar’s contemporary dance practice, which strove “to create a new dance form that would draw substantially from Indian tradition, but one that would be modern in its sensibility and contemporary in its themes” (88). Allana also chronicles the foundation of the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), the staging of IPTA’s iconic Nabanna (New Harvest) in 1944, and the play’s ability to effectively, “touch on an actual contemporary event” (89): the Bengal famine of 1943. Nabanna replaced the glitz and glamor of the royalty and gentry who populated the plays of the early 20th-century Bengali commercial theatre with the suffering, starving masses of rural areas, dressed in their everyday tattered clothing. The play showed the landed gentry for what it truly was — a class of ruthless oppressors — and exposed the public to the reality that the famine was orchestrated by an unholy collusion between the Indian landlords and the British government.

The third and final section of the book, “Staging Hybridities” is the tour de force unit of the volume. This period (1950 onwards) also coincides with Allana’s own theatrical journey as a student at the National School of Drama, a trainee at the erstwhile GDR at the Berliner Ensemble, and, finally, as chair of the NSD and one of contemporary India’s most potent directorial voices. The editor is a much more active presence in this section, contributing six of the eleven entries.

In her introduction, titled “Post-Independence Enactment,” Allana aptly captures the mood among Indian actors following the bloodbath of the Indian partition, which heralded the foundation of modern India. She appropriately chronicles defining moments during this time of the nation’s cultural history: the foundation of new theatre groups, the emergence of strong regional theatre centers in Maharashtra and West Bengal, the introduction of Stanislavskian and Brechtian styles in contemporary Indian performance, and the emergence of a political theatre culture. The centerpiece of Allana’s narrative for this period is the foundation of the NSD (1959) and the significant overhauling of its curriculum under the stewardship of Ebrahim Alkazi (b. 1925), who joined as the institute’s director in 1962 and remained in the post until 1977.

Besides the sections mentioned above, the book also includes a foreword by Richard Schechner, a preface by Allana’s mentor and father Ebrahim Alkazi, and a separate introduction by Allana. The editor includes detailed biographies of each actor included in the book, a comprehensive play list (compiled ably by Amitabh Srivastava), short histories of major theatre companies, a thorough bibliography, a useful glossary, and an index for easy navigation through the monumental volume. The book also includes some very rare photographs.

The final section of the book is the most engaging, although it shows a clear bias towards the NSD and its alumni. Most of the actors interviewed or included in this section have had a significant association with the institute. The interviews with Allana, however, are a treasure trove since she brings her own experience of being a student, teacher, director, and administrator at NSD to inform the observations made by her respondents.

Allana writes, “In a rather bleak archival scenario where no substantial national or private holding [sic] on theatre are currently available, the process of documenting any aspect of performance is a Herculean task” (xvii). While Allana does deserve accolades for accomplishing this task, the book suffers from some significant shortcomings. Namely, the volume could have been more useful if Allana had streamlined her focus rather than undertaking the expansive project of narrating the story of all of modern Indian theatre. The first two parts of the book include mostly reproductions and re-prints of previously published and anthologized material. Though these sections provide the context that leads up to the final and most intriguing part of the book, Allana’s comprehensive introductions could have done the job just as well. Second, at Rs.3000 (the list price for the volume in the Indian market) the book is most likely to gather dust at libraries outside of the reach of scores of actors and their audiences. The editor would have served the volume and its agenda better if she had not spent so much time dwelling in the [End Page 163] past, left her NSD moorings, and had spoken to actors across the country who are engaged in the act of becoming. That would have given this book the depth and expanse that it aspires to but never ends up achieving.