Author: Malini Bhattacharya
Translator(s): Sarmishta Dutta Gupta / Paramita Banerjee
Publisher: Seagull Books
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 56
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8170461952
Description
A volume of three street plays from the women's movement, written in 1980s and widely performed as part of the vibrant cultural activism of the time.
Brought together for the first time with an introductory essay by the playwright and a note by filmmaker and activist Madhusree Dutt, who directed these plays, the book, a volume of three street plays, provides invaluable documentation of a significant period in the history of women's activism in India.
Giving Away the Girl and The Monkey Dance are both anti-dowry plays. Why All this Bloodshed? Was written in the wake of the landmark Shah Bano case in the mid-80s centering around a Muslim woman's right to maintenance. All the plays remain remarkably relevant, opening up key issues of the movement in a complex and nuanced manner, facilitating debate rather than offering simplistic solutions.