Postmodern Bengali Theatre : A Critical Assessment, with Reference to Select Playwrights’ Works

Postmodern Bengali drama holds a special place in the ever-expanding body of world theatre in the 21stcentury. A number of powerful playwrights—who write primarily in Bengali but have been widely translated and performed—are contributing, almost regularly, for achieving international prominence for Indian theatre in particular, and for the Commonwealth Stage in general. The present volume aims to collect different essays by academics, critics, and practicing theatre-personalities to describe how ‘Postmodern Bengali Theatre’ has become an important term in today’s world of performance, play-writing, and general literature. As Bengali theatre has undergone fast and remarkable changes since the beginning of its so-called ‘post-modern period’ (in early-post-independence-India), the elements of postmodernism in select plays by noted dramatists like Badal Sircar, Bratya Basu, Ujjwal Chattopadhyay, Hara Bhattacharya, and Tirthankar Chanda, have successfully challenged the perceived hegemony and conventions of post-modern Western theatre, and earned recognition for Indian productions. The select essays in this volume—in an effort to provide the paradigm for critical approaches to other postmodern playwrights’ works as well—have been dedicated to assessing the dramatic oeuvre of Bratya Basu, one of the more recognized Commonwealth dramatists in the 21st century, as well as those of (select) other post-modern Bengali dramatists. Moreover, the history of development of postmodern Bengali theater and its different literary aspects are explored, which makes this anthology of critical writings an indispensable handbook for academics and researchers dealing with different aspects of drama and dramaturgy.