Indian theatres of the absurd: cultural politics of transformation

Abstract

This chapter examines Indian variants of absurdist theatre with a focus on the cultural transformations and appropriations that India’s multilingual absurdisms execute. Critiquing Martin Esslin’s labelling as a trans-contextual imposition from philosophy to theatre, the chapter reads Bengali, Marathi and Hindi plays from post-Independence India that were considered absurdist. We encompass major playwrights like Badal Sircar, Mohit Chattopadhyay, Mahesh Elkunchwar, Mohan Rakesh and others to show how differently the term ‘absurdism’ was applied to their works, ranging from metatheatrical and anti-realistic rationales to referential reasons for mapping Sisyphus in India. What is the cultural politics of absurdism in India? How do these playwrights culturally inflect and contextualize this kind of theatre in their local milieu? What are the public responses to this theatre in India? The chapter addresses these questions by examining not only the aforementioned dramatists and their works but also English and Indian language productions of Beckett, not to mention group theatre leaflets distributed alongside productions of Pinter and audience reactions in the form of letters.