Book Review

Theatre and the World: Performance and the Politics of Culture

by Rustam Bharucha

HUL821 performance/ theatre theory/ practice

Submitted by : Abhishek Krishan

2012CE10314
Rustam Bharucha in his book Theatre and the World :Performance and politics of culture
presents both the critique and appraisal of intercultural theatre from a third world perspective
along with presenting the aestheticism of Indian culture in form of Indian theatre and has also
described the inability of foreign agencies to imitate and adopt its true form.
The books starts with introduction in which he gives brief introduction of interculturalism and
how the world is shrinking. He also talks about colonialism and how it affected interculturalism
in forced manner.
First chapter collision of culture in which author talks about some western interpretation and
uses of Indian theatre and how this accessibility and overuse of Indian theatre occasionally lead
to subtle exploitation of its tradition and conventions.He has critiqued work of Antonin Artaud
about oriental theatre and Balinese theatre by saying that his work is one big misreading. He
has critically examined the work of the some of the twentieth century's most prominent theatre
practitioners and the theorists, including Antonin Artaud, Jerzsy Grotowski, Gordon Craig and
Richard Schechters study of the theatre and has questioned the assumptions underlying their
theatrical visions. He has described how they tried to extract potential from Indian theatre by
copying facial expressions from Kathakali and movements from Yoga but ultimately realized
that it was futile to imitate the techniques of Indian theatre because only physical postures can be

copied but basic framework, emotions and feels associated with that particular form of theatre is
impossible to copy. He contends that Indian theatre has been grossly mythologized and taken
out of context by Western directors and critics. And he presents detailed dramaturgical analysis
of what he describes as an inter cultural theatre project, providing an alternative possibilities of
true cultural pluralism.
In second chapter Good bye Grotowski Author has entirely critiqued the Grotowskis work on
invention of theatre by writing that Your search is essentially personal and continuous. You will
always frustrate any attempt by a writer to fix you in the past tense. and also have suggested
the alternatives. In third chapter theatre of migrants author talks about Barbas deduction of
theatre of migrants and laws of bios on transcultural level.
In chapter four Peter Brooks Mahabharata A view from India the author has questioned the
direction of Mahabharata(the great Indian epic of all times) by Peter brook who tried to portray
the epic in his country with characters from different countries like India, Japan, U. Kingdom etc
and thinks Mahabharata can be described in poems and it could be staged universally by saying
that Mahabharata is source of knowledge in the fields of literature, dance, painting, sculpture
and many more and thus cannot be simply shown in the poems. It has many meanings as deep as
oceans attached to it and is simply not possible to exclude Indian culture from it as Indians have
grown up with it and have it in their blood.So any attempt of adoption or imitation of this epic by
any foreign agency will result into a failure as it would lack the basic essence of its genetic and
inherent culture.
In Chapter 5 The Request Concert project: foreword the author rightly argues that we cannot
know the history and culture of a city better than the resident of that city. A particular scenario
would be acted upon differently from people of different places. While casting the show The
Request Concert in Asia, the author and is companion Manuel were given enough support by the
actors. The author tells that The Request Concert has bought a transition in himself and moved
him away from the life he thought was the best to live in. He concludes by saying that The life of
theatre is much beyond the stage.
In Chapter 6 Request Concert in Calcutta, The native place of the author is said to a dying city
by many but he slashes on these comments. Calcutta is a city which holds the very essence of
culture in itself. From being formal and textual considerations to examination of the underlying
social context is all held in this city. They choose this city to cast their show. So, the very first
step to look for a place that suits the needs of the show was required. After a tedious search from
artificially decorated places to places that were equivalent to nothing were dug. Finally they
landed into The Calcutta Puppet Theatre, Kasba which gave them the feel that they longed for.
They wanted to create life in all the things there that included the doors, windows etc but at same
time they did not want to hamper the originality of the place. There was a lot of disturbance due
to common noises which were initially thought to be dismissed but that was next to impossible.
This brought them the idea to include all the sounds and thus would give the audience a full taste
of it. The woman who portrayed the lead, does not speak, its her silence that does all the saying.
The idea of inclusion of television was bought under thought. As those days television no more
was a symbol of status. The lead was from Calcutta and knew what people would think of each

thing being shown. Simple things like how people have food, what food they have, there usual
habits were all taken under consideration.The Request Concert paid lot of attention to cleanliness
and so was taken care in this show as well.
The feeling of loneliness was correctly displayed in the act. The main things that constitute the
Request Concert like the woman stitching, cleaning, eating and at the end committing suicide
were done well. The audience could connect well to the drama as it was enacted by a native
person and all the cultural and traditional things were well kept an eye on. This resulted in people
connecting to the drama well and each element added to the charm of the character of Joya Sen
In Chapter 7 Request Concert in Bombay , the author now goes to Bombay (often called the
city of dreams) to cast their show. Bombay seemed to be flourishing but only on the surface. The
most finance of country comes from this city. The author meets Arvind and SulabhaDeshapande
who agree to help them cast the drama. The author wanted to reflect the power of this industry
through her psychology and state of being, through a woman.
They name the character as Umadevi, who is a junior artist.They realise that the life of a junior
artist is full of obstacles. She goes through sexual humiliation, the gap between the junior and the
senior artist is made clear to a junior artist. They wanted to link with the hindi film industry, to
reveal the surrender of the characters individuality to the attitudes and gestures propagated by the
industry. The Request Concert pays a lot of concentration towards the cleanliness but the junior
artist here would only keep her dressing mirror clean and nothing else. The character had to be
made more conscious of the cleaning habits to be portrayed. Umadevis family is bought into
picture, where she is said to have a nephew, for whom she stitches.
The tensions that a junior artist goes through was deliberately imposed in the every level of the
production. The struggle that she goes through was intentionally shown. They soundtrack used
was more turbulent than warm environmental sounds of Calcutta. The most synchronized music
was when she laid on bed with her transistor on her. She had all tasks done in fragments, very
different from what was portrayed by Joya Sen.The suicide scene was attempted to be made as
real as possible. The wine sipping , which was absent in the act in Calcutta, was done well. The
audience did not get much of a shock with the suicide scene. Umadevi becomes free from the
tasks, early morning shifts, humiliation, insults that she went through. This is how it was done in
Bombay. The nest target being Madras
Chapter 8 The Request in Madras, initially it is only Manuel who handles the task by heading
to Madras and starting the rehersal with Chandralekha(the lead), the well known dancer who was
difficult to imitate as she was a free soul.
Manuel found it difficult to work with her because she wanted to dance, even in her simple walk
were the glimpses of dance. Chandra did not want to analyze Kroetzs character from a feminist
perspective. The author later realized that Chandra cannot view woman as character, she sees
them essentially as parts of a woman. Manuel was forced to question about the origin of mudras,
what were their primary energies. It was answered as Bharat Natyam came from the observations
of real-life gestures. Manuel never questioned Chandra of her movements there after.

The levels of narration included the conversion of text into tamil. Manuel wanted to highlight the
clash of the cultural context and its representation within a coherent artistic framework. The
normal day to day life things in Germany would not be considered the same in India. The woman
drinking wine would not be permitted in Madras and many more examples as such. Chandra as a
person closely guards her privacy. When the author visits Chandras locality , nobody there
recognizes her which clearly displays her privacy levels. Their were no sounds made, Chandra
moved through the motions of her dance. More than in theatre, this silence was arresting because
it highlighted the emptiness of the womans world depicted on stage.
The dance itself was so
unembellished that it felt close to life. She altered her energies of her body in such a way that
she was simply being, not dancing on stage.
The suicide act arrested each ones attention and no one could think any other thing, it came out
so real that the audience empathized with Chandra. Her movements seemed as clear as water and
each scene depicted has a meaning that it would go beneath the depth of the sea.
In chapter Retrospect author tries to reflect the achievements and the limits of the intercultural
work. The play was enacted in many parts of India and in other countries like Jakarta, Tokyo and
Seoul. The author clearly tells that whatever you may be , in the end you would want to return to
the place you are bought up in. The streets you travelled, the places you visited and much more.
The cultural differences that exist in the each culture can never be diminished and the line can be
narrowed but there will always be a line. The act belonging to a particular culture must be acted
by those people only who know the in and out of it. If other people are made to do it, it destroys
the meaning of culture for that particular act. All countries follow their own culture, the culture
they are bought up in, the culture that flows in their blood, who do you think would best portray
it? The person who is new to all of it or the one who knows each bit of it. In this chapter the
author just tries to tell us the difference in each culture and that ones culture is unique and best
in its own way.
In chapter eleven author has beautifully described the Invention of traditions using the various
theatrical aspects of culture. Fact that technology has intermediated in the invention of traditions
has been exemplified by the author in descriptive manner. How the environmental changes affect
the culture, how technology can create a folk and up to what extent do we inherit culture and up
to what extent we develop and evolve it has been discussed by taking various examples which is
quite informative too.
Finally as a conclusion I would say that from a critique of interculturalism to an exploration of
the intercultural possibilities of theatre culture in India, the essays in this book have travelled
across diverse cultures and continents over a twelve-year period and openly challenged much of
today's 'multicultural' theatrical movement.