The Discourse of Egalitarianism and Emancipatory Theatrics in Badal Sircar s Plays

Abstract

Badal Sircar (1925-2011), as a playwright, an actor, a director and, above all, a crusader, newlinehad a clear and definite contribution which is almost unparalleled in the theatrical history of newlineIndia. The successive events like the partition of India, migration across the border, devastating newlinefamine, food movement in 1959, consecutive Communist Party split in 1964 and 1967, newlineBangladesh Liberation War, the radical Naxalbari Movement and various other national and newlineinternational events in the 1960s and70s had a telling impact on preparing a fertile ground in newlineSircar s growth as a people s artist. His life, as well as his oeuvre, were dedicated to the cause newlineof the masses. The language of his theatre unswervingly avoids the ivory tower sublimity of art newlineand reflects the voice of the mass deprived of all fundamental rights. newlineBadal Sircar revolutionised the discourse of theatre, including paraphernalia, presentation, newlinestructure, dialogue, costume, light, sound management and all other dramatic stereotypes to newlinemake theatre a real people s theatre . The everydayness , borderlessness , and the intimacy newlinewith the audience made his theatre a more negotiable art form. It is pretty evident from all newlineperspectives that Sircar had moved consciously towards a theatrical dimension that seeks newlineindependence from all existing and known forms and steers clear of the tried and, therefore, newlineclichéd art and performance. Sircar advocates an alternative to the performance mode that issues newlineout of his untiring engagement with the complex social structure of this complex world - a newlineliving material for his mould-breaking experimentations - to transcend the constricted structures newlineof conventional, consumerist and capital-driven living. It would be wrong to judge his mission s newlinesuccess or failure through his theatrical movement only. Instead, we must try to find in him a newlinerare capacity for finding a unique idiom of expression that does justice to the continuous gnawing newlineof conscience. As the modern technological set-up perpetuates social inequities in new garbs,