Author: Manoj Mitra
Translator(s)/ Edito: Mousumi Roy Chowdhury
Publisher: Seagull Books
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 290
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8170463238
Description
The Theatre of Conscience
The Palace of Shadows (Chhayar Prashad; set in the decadence of the Mauryan Empire during the times of Bindusar and the scripture-toting Brahmans) and The Tale of Hekim-shaheb (Galpo Hekimshaheb; set in nineteenth-century Bengal against the backdrop of the Permanent Settlement Act and the revenue-extracting British and exploitative zamindars, talukdars and chepattanidars), cast in the genre of the historical play, are addressed from within the crisis of our times--the rise of religious fundamentalism, corruption and misrule.
Honey From a Broken Hive (Chak Bhanga Modhu; written during the crisis-ridden period of the Naxal Movement in Bengal) addresses a crisis of another kind-of representation. Chance news of a man dying of snakebite at the Ojha's house in a village in the Sunderbans triggered off the writing of this play in which Manoj Mitra shows violence within a community of extreme poverty as erupting from forces that cannot be contained within an ideology or a rationalized will to act. This volume also contains a detailed introduction by the translator and an indepth interview with the playwright.
Contents
Introduction
The Tale of Hekim-shaheb
Honey from a Broken Hive
The Shadow Palace
Appendix:
"That Tiny Cube of Space"
An Interview with the Playwright