Girish Karnad's Plays : Performance and Critical Perspectives

Contents: Acknowledgements. 1. Introduction of Text and Performance: Girish Karnad's Plays. 2. In His Own Voice: A Conversation with Girish Karnad. 3. Playing upon the Possibilities: Ma Nishada (1964) as "Agasayana" in the 1990s. 4. Race and Gender in Yuyati. 5. Tughlaq as an Experimenter. 6.Use and Abuse of History in Tughlaq Veena/Noble Dass. 7. Historical Fictions and Postcolonial Representation: Reading Tughlaq. 8. Thirty Years with an Insane Man! An Actor Reminisces. 9. From the Horse's Mouth: A Study of Hayavadana. 10. Hayavadana: Model of Comlexity. 11. Hayavadana: A Study in Condensation. 12. Effacing Hayavadana: on the Masks of the Text. 13. Myth and Reality in Hayavadana and Nagamandala. 14. Quest for Completeness in Hayavadana and Nagamandala or their Subversion? 15. Nagamandala as a Folk/Fake. 16. Morality Play: A Study of the Folk Paradigm in Karnad's Play in the Light of the Naga Cult of Kerala. 17. Performing Women, Performing Body: Adapting Nagamandala for Feminist Theatre. 18. From 'Word' to 'Act': An Approach to Girish Karnad. 19. Caste Consciousness and Karnad: Analyzing Tale-danda. 20. Tale-danda: Text and Performance. 21. "We have a Play to Perform Toda!" Karnad's Plays on Stage: 1984-1994. 22. Rituals as Self-Discovery in The Fire and the Rain. 23. Politics of Power: A Study of Gender and Caste in The Fire and the Rain. 24. Woman as Director: Re-Reading The Fire and the Rain. 25. A Karnad Festival in Karnataka. 26.The Fire and the Rain on Celluloid. 27. Negotiating Ideological Spaces: Reading Bali: The Sacrifice. 28. Bali: The Sacrifice and Dionysian Life Assertion. 29. The Dreams of Tipu's Sultan at Mysore. 30. On the Wings of his Dreams: Re-Viewing the Legends and History of Tipu Sultan. 31. The Flickering play of Desire and memory: Exploring Driven Snow. 32. Problematizing Karnad's Dramaturgy. 33. The Splintered Self: A Heap of Broken Images at Rangashankara. 34. Flowers: A Dramatic Monoluge: Patriarchal Power and the Nature of Sacrifice. Contributors. Bibliography. Index.

This volume both interrogates and celebrates the outstanding achievement of Girish Karnad as a gramatist, engaged in reinventing the Indian theatre traditions over the past forty-five years. Jargon-free and insightful, the book probes Karnad's inclusive dramaturgy manifested in his deft handling of various literary tropes and stage props. All major plays of the distinguished dramatist are explored and revaluated in their larger socio-cultural, historical, gender, caste and performance contexts, preceded by a long and rewarding conversation with the playwright, many of them supported by photographes of productions. The thirty-two contributors to this definitve study belong to the top shelf of drama/theare critics and sahardayas from India and abroad.