Folk Theater of India by Balwant Gargi (review)

BOOK REVIEWS ASIAN DRAMA: A COLLECTION OF FESTIYAL PAPERS, by Henry W. Wells, ed., The College of Fine Arts, University of South Dakota, May 1966, vi, 181 pp. The papers in this collection result from a Festival of Asian Drama held at the University of South Dakota in May 1965. They deal with aspects or types of drama in India, Tibet, China, Korea and Japan, with subjects ranging from discussion of drama in general against an Asian background, through accounts of theatre in various countries, to a translation of a Yuan play. The contributors are equally varied, including as they do suclI established academics as Professors J. Crump, R. McKinnon and R. P. Oliver, Indians writing on the drama of their own country, and people with practical experience of producing or performing Asian theatrical entertainments. The preSentation varies just as widely from paper to paper, from a racy but perceptive account of Kyogen by Donald RiclIie to a carefully documented research paper on the origin of Chinese ~ama, and an essay on 'Psychic Agon: Sunyata' whiclI is so pretentious that one wonders whether, considering the company in which it is found, it was not intended as an exercise in parody. Most of the papers are well worth reading, however, and one can well imagine that the Festival itself was indeed a revealing and rewarding experience for all who took part. The main impression left by the book is of the riches of the Asian treasure-house of dance and drama, whether one judges from the material treated in the book or reflects on the far greater wealth it had of necessity to leave untouched. The peepholes offered by the papers in the present collection suggest a number of interesting questions. What links are there in the historical development of Asian drama? To what extent are or were stage conventions common to different areas? Is it valid, in fact, to talk of 'Asian drama', or does the term signify merely a hotclI-potch of different forms whiclI happen to have been produced within the geographical boundaries of Asia? Finally-and most interesting, perhaps-what lessons· do Asian drama forms have for the theatre of the West? The No and Kyogen of Japan have shown that the stage limitations of time and space we usually accept can be overcome very simply by ignoring the realism whiclI produces them. Other parts of Asia can reinforce this lesson for us and teach us much else about their own and our dramas; but more researclI and information is needed both in breadth and depth. SuclI pUblications as this one are therefore very welcome, and the present collection will prove of interest and value to anyone concerned with drama, East or West. P. G. O'NEILL University of London FOLK THEATER OF INDIA, by Balwant Gargi, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1966, u7 pp., plates. Price $8.95. The few studies of the Indian folk theater that have as yet appeared have unmistakably demonstrated the considerable importance of the subject and the increasing earnestness with whiclI it is being examined by a growing but still sadly small group of investigators. Balwant Gargi's most recent treatment sup451 452 MODERN DRAMA February plies the most detailed account given thus far. His book is vivid and well informed rather than reflective or critical but in the present stage of these studies there should be small quarrel with this point of view. The author, who is both playwright and director, is singularly well prepared to present a vital picture of a large number of the types of village theaters. He should be congratulated for his wide travels through his country and for the documentation of what hc has witnessed by a large collection of photographs, from which his book presents excellent specimens. Although many elements of this folk drama are of pre-historic origin, all its plays are modern in the sense that they are in a current repertory. The author rarely mentions printed books, indeed he even fails to provide a listing of them. He writes almost exclusively of what he has observed. The book possesses something of the liveliness of good presentational art. When, considered as literature...