Among the most significant playwrights and theatre-makers of postcolonial India, Utpal Dutt (1929-1993), was an early exponent of rethinking colonial history through political theatre. Dutt envisaged political theatre as part of the larger Marxist project, and his incorporation of new developments in Marxist thinking, including the contributions of Antonio Gramsci, makes it possible to conceptualise his protagonists as insurgent subalterns. A decolonial approach to staging history remained a significant element in Dutt's artistic project. This Element examines Dutt's passionate engagement with Marxism and explores how this sense of urgency was actioned through the writing and producing of plays about the peasant revolts and armed anti-colonial movements which took place during the period of British rule. Drawing on contemporary debates in political theatre regarding the autonomy of the spectator and the performance of history, the author locates Dutt's political theatre in a historical frame.
| ISBN: | 9781009500227 |
| Publication date: | 11th April 2024 |
| Author: | Mallarika Sinha Roy |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 75 pages |
| Series: | Elements in Theatre, Performance and the Political |
| Genres: |
Theatre studies Decolonisation and postcolonial studies History of Performing Arts Political ideologies and movements |