theatre

Girish Karnad, the Playwright Against the Right

It is both apt and reductive that two images dominate others as Girish Karnad is remembered on social media: one, with Gauri Lankesh, protesting the killing of Karnad's fellow Dharwadian Prof. M.M. Kalburgi; the other, wearing the Me Too Urban Naxal placard, at the memorial to mark the first anniversary of Gauri Lankesh's own killing. Over the past few years, Karnad was seen as one of the most consistent, fearless and principled defenders of freedom of speech, cultural diversity and democracy. I[...]

Danish Husain: The only way to fight Modi's grammar of deception is that you continue to be relevant

Danish Husain is an actor, poet, storyteller as well as a theatre director. He runs his own theatre company called the Hoshruba Repertory. He is known for his revival of Urdu storytelling through the Dastangoi form and later inventing the multilingual storytelling project Qissebaazi. He has appeared in a number of films, including Peepli Live (2010), Ankhon Dekhi (2013), Newton (2017) and Manto (2018). Danish is also our author. He wrote a brilliant fable on Indian PM Narendra Modi in our [...]

The Freedom Theatre: ten years of tenacity -

Rehearsing Freedom: the story of a theatre in PALESTINE Edited by Johanna Wallin; Designed by Sherna Dastur Published by LeftWord Books in association with The Freedom Theatre To you who stole the future: Your airplane is powerful, It flies faster than a storm and destroys a whole city. But it has one defect: It needs belief. - an excerpt from Suicide Note from Palestine (2013-14) It is not a coffee table book. Rehearsing Freedom: the story of a theatre in PALESTINE is not a book th[...]

A review of Acting Up: Gender and Theatre in India, 1979 Onwards

Acting Up: Gender and Theatre in India, 1979 Onwards, by A. Mangai, a book which examines the work of major women theatre practitioners in India since 1979 to explore the intersection of gender and theatre. Niharika Malimadugula has written about the book for The Wire. She writes, "Despite being a largely scholarly endeavor, there’s a sensitivity of description and a personal involvement from Mangai, both as a teller and participant in the world of theatre, that makes the book relatable and p[...]