Author: Gurcharan Das
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 198
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195653734
Description
This is a book that both the general reader and the theatre buff will love to read and possess.
Gurcharan Das wrote three successful plays in his twenties, which are brought together here for the first time with a new introduction by the author. In it he describes how he learnt to write, why he came a writer, and what makes playwriting more difficult than any other kind of writing.
Larins Sahib is a historical play set in the confused period after the death of Ranjit Singh when the British first arrived in Punjab. This prize-winning play traces the development of the hubris, which brings about the hero's downfall. Larins Sahib has been performed in major Indian cities and at the Edinburgh Festival.
Mira 'a rite of Krishna for five actor-dancers', premiered at the La Manna Theatre in New York in 1970,. It explores the phenomenon of sainthood through the story of Mirabai, the sixteenth century Rajput poetess-saint. The New York Times called it 'remarkable in the way it combined Indian legend with the sophistication of Western total theatre.... It has something of the quality of a dream ritual'.
9 Jakho Hill, the third play in this series is set in the autumn of 1962 in Shimla. It examines a number of themes - the changing social order with the rise of a new middle class, the incestual obsessions of an aging uncle, the hold of Indian mothers on their sons, and the eventual betrayal of sexual love.