Theatre, Activism, Subjectivity

Bishnupriya Dutt is Professor of Theatre and Performance at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru UniversitySilvija Jestrovic is Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Warwick

‘This book is simply terrific, offering astute transnational perspectives on the predicaments confronting contemporary progressive political theatres – an essential resource for those looking for unity in a fragmented world!’—Professor Tony Fisher, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama‘It is in the domain of culture that we imagine our futures and struggle over our values. On the stage, in our songs, and in the way we move our bodies, we tell each other that this or that need not be the way things should be, and that the other thing, that thing that we imagine and do, is possible. That’s the point of the essays in Theatre, activism, subjectivity. We stand ‘Stage Left’ and cry, Not This. Not This. Never Just This. We Want More. And that is when the real drama begins.’—Vijay Prashad, Director, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research

• Forward - Partha ChatterjeeIntroduction: Searching for the Left in a Fragmented World - Silvija Jestrovic & Bishnupriya DuttPart I: Activism1 Performing the Constitution as an insurgent document - Nivedita Menon2 Revolution: Like. Share. Subscribe - Dragan Todorovic3 The ‘Hunger Artists’: Hunger protests, prisons and insurgent citizenship - Anupama Roy and Ujjwal Kumar Singh4 Of Quiet Resistance: Shy Radicals, divergent world-making and the poetics of statecraft - Anika Marschall Part II: Theatre5 Acting Politically: Making performance in the eye of history - Adrian Kear6 Theatre of the streets—of the working class: strikes, protests, and democratization of life - Bishnupriya Dutt7 The Cheviot and its Legacies: Dramaturgies of the Left in Scottish Theatre - Trish Reid8 Between the Right and the Left: Staging political, emotional and social polarizations on Canadian stage - Yana Meerzon9 The Indiscreet Charm of Left nostalgia: Reeking redolence in the contemporary - Ameet Parameswaran10 Staging Revolution: Utpal Dutt’s Kallol (1965) and the Question of ‘Spectacular’ Aesthetics in Calcutta’s Leftist Theatre Practice - Trina Neelina Banerjee11 Love in the time of revolution: Exploring political theatre of Utpal Dutt - Mallarika Sinha RoyPart III: Subjectivity12 Revolutionary intimacies: Friendship, love, and theatre - Silvija Jestrovic13 The fraught act of speaking for / about the communist women - Urmimala Sarkar Munsi14 One always fails to speak of the things one loves: Memories of border crossings - Shirin M Rai15 Why I am still a Socialist - Janelle Reinelt