Badal Sircar:
Third Theatre and Social Change

Natak or its western that we call theatre, in an art form that is surely three thousand years old in India, if not more. With the onset of European colonial encounter, Bengalis, Marathis and different other Indian nationalities got entrenched in the art and practice of proscenium theatre.

It took someone of the genius of Badal Sircar to break free from the modernist shackles of proscenium theatre. In 1980s and 1990s he pioneered Third Theatre movement in Bengal and beyond. The present work by a scholar of literature and theatre discusses in detail the plays of Sircar and its impact on social change in India and beyond. This work on contemporary Indian legend is an important contribution to the people's history of India