Alternative Theatre or Third theatre of Badal Sircar PDF

Preview

Summary

Badal Sircar was born in 1925 to a middle-class family and went on to become a civil engineer in 1947. He became active in communist politics for the first time as a student at Bengal Engineering College. Sircar began his political career as a member of the AISF (the student wing of the undivided CP...

Description

Alternative Theatre or Third theatre of Badal Sircar The Stage of the Forestage

Badal Sircar was born in 1925 to a middle-class family and went on to become a civil engineer in 1947. He became active in communist politics for the first time as a student at Bengal Engineering College. Sircar began his political career as a member of the AISF (the student wing of the undivided CPI). Sircar then became involved in the trade union movement, which exposed him to the plight of the working class. But, throughout the prohibition years, the Party began to make reckless judgments, which led to disappointment (1948-51). For questioning the leadership, Sircar was suspended by the CPI. Disillusioned, he returned to his early passion, theatre. Sircar, who worked as an engineer in Maithon, a small town outside of Kolkata, created a'rehearsal club' with the support of his coworkers. The club's purpose was to rehearse plays. However, his inability to find good plays pushed him to write his own. Though he began his career as a playwright with comedies such as Solution X (1956), Baropisima (The Elder Aunt, 1959), Sanibar (Saturday,

1959), Ram Shyam Jadu (Tom Dick Harry, 1961), and Ballabhpurer Rupkatha (The Fairy Tale of Ballabhpur, 1963), Badal Sircar's career as a playwright truly began with Ebong Indrajit (Evam Indrajit Baki Itihas (That Other History, 1965), Tringsha Satabdi (The Third Millennium, 1966), Pagla Ghora (The Crazy Horse, 1967), Sarkas (Circus, 1969), and Sesh Nei (There Is No End, 1970) were among the serious pieces that followed. The early serious proscenium plays are classified into two categories: those that focus on interpersonal interactions and those that deal with economic and political issues. Sircar was dissatisfied with the class-divided society and the resulting oppression of the majority of people, but he had already lost faith in the official left and had no clear ideas about how the struggle for a better society could be begun. All of his political proscenium plays include protagonists who refuse to accept the status quo.

society as it is and go on a frenetic hunt for the best course of action. Sircar's mind-set is reflected in these plays, which frequently have autobiographical themes. Evam Indrajit, the most important play of the proscenium phase, is about selfish bourgeois life and the necessity to transcend it in order to pave the way for a new society. Amal, Bimal, Kamal, and Nirmal are stereotypical characters who live a self-centered and routine life, accepting everything without inquiry. Indrajit,

on the other hand, is unique in that he previously intended to struggle against mindless obedience but eventually felt exhausted and dissatisfied. He does, however, transform his character by the end of the play. Indrajit chose the road since he has no notion how to solve the challenges. It's beside the point to use the play as an example of ludicrous drama. Sircar had nothing to do with the pessimism that engulfed Europe in the aftermath of WWII (1939-45). The supporters of absurd theatre took a pessimistic view of life in an equally meaningless universe. Badal Sircar, on the other hand, was eager to find a way to a completely different civilization. All of Sircar's serious proscenium plays' protagonists have a lot in common with Indrajit. They never turn away from social reality and live an egotistic life, but they are unclear about which course of action to choose until the very end.

The Third Stage of the Play

Sircar was well aware of the constraints of the conventional stage while writing, directing, and producing plays for the proscenium theatre. Naturalistic theatre creates a separation between the audience and the actors in its endeavour to create the illusion of realism on stage. The audience is kept in the dark as the actors perform, denying that they are there. Sircar observed that there was a lack of the human element because the performers and the audience never spoke

directly. There's another issue with a naturalistic play's'story.' The audience becomes so engrossed in it that they lose their ability to reason. A theatre practitioner's capacity to reach the people is further limited by the cost of a proscenium production, the availability of an auditorium, and performing in front of a select audience. These concerns eventually motivated Sircar to consider creating an alternative theatre, for which he drew inspiration from both his country and the rest of the globe.

Sircar investigated the folk theatre (the 'first' theatre because it is indigenous) and the proscenium theatre (the'second' theatre because it was imported much later from the West) to determine their strengths and weaknesses, which led him to develop a 'Third Theatre,' a synthesis theatre.

Badal Sircar's 'Third Theatre' developed three different characteristics:

I.

Flexibility.

II.

Portability.

III.

Inexpensiveness.

Sircar could imagine producing the open sky since he was convinced that theatre did not require a box-stage or a traditional theatre. The Third Theatre became more adaptable as a result of this. By obviating the need for the

Sircar's theatre became portable thanks to the artificial sound system, which could be easily taken anywhere. He no longer needed to wait for viewers to arrive at his theatre; instead, he could perform outside factory gates, college grounds, and along the side of a busy road. Furthermore, by refusing to rely on money to produce and continue producing plays, the Third Theatre proved to be affordable and so free. Sircar's audiences are never required to pay to attend the performances; they are free to donate (or not donate at all) whatever amount they like afterward. Sircar not only lowered the distance between the actors and the spectators by abandoning the traditional seating arrangement and placing the audience on three sides of the acting arena, but he also created an intimate ambiance in the auditorium in the case of an Anganmancha (Arena) play. Furthermore, because the hall is beautifully illuminated, the actors may receive feedback from the crowd, just as a spectator can see the emotions of another spectator. The intensity of the emotional communication between the actors and the viewers is heightened to a significant extent since the performances are done on the floor.

This model was later used in Muktamancha (Open-air) plays, in which actors performed in broad daylight without the use of any mechanical aids.

Sircar realised that the 'human body' is the most basic tool in theatre. Theatre is finally distinguished from cinema by the presence of the 'body.' In its ongoing effort to convey 'a piece of life' on stage, the realistic theatre employs lavish sets, props, and clothing. However, it always loses ground to cinema, which succeeds in presenting what the former frantically attempts to present: the 'illusion of reality.' As a result, Sircar said that theatre should rely on its strength: live contact between actors and audiences. In his Third Theatre pieces, he established various'stage realities' through the inventive utilisation of bodies.

It's important to remember that the Third Theatre isn't only a form experiment. In reality, it has a well-defined philosophy that guides its actions. Sircar's main goal was to free theatre from its enslavement to the metropolitan middle-class audience, who, for the most part, lead a selfish existence. He wished to use theatre as a vehicle for social transformation, sowing socialist and Marxist ideas among those who, for the most part, remained outside the realm of traditional theatre. The Third Theatre productions make the general public aware of the injustices to which they are subjected and instil in them a sense of responsibility to effect fundamental change in society. Badal Sircar has been able

to construct a body of work that pays equal weight to revolutionary political substance and aesthetic form without subscribing to any single political party's requirements. In one piece after another, he used a range of methods (such as collage, humour, and fantasy) to convey a radical message. It's also worth mentioning that the protagonists of the Third Theatre plays changed dramatically. The proscenium dramas frequently ended with a sense of despondency over the way to choose. However, in the Third Theatre phase, Badal Sircar depends on the masses' potential to respond positively even in the absence of a truly revolutionary political organisation....