Theatre of Roots: Redirecting the Modern Indian Stage (review)

Erin Mee's book offers an illuminating account of the "theatre of roots," an appellation coined by Suresh Awasthi, former General Secretary of the Sangeet Natak Akademi and former Chair of the National School of Drama, two influential cultural/educational institutions of postindependence India. According to Awasthi, "The return to and discovery of tradition is inspired by a search for roots and a quest for identity. This is part of the whole process of decolonization of lifestyle, social institutions, creative forms, and cultural modes" (1989:48). Awasthi's performative and institutional interventions bring together diverse performance practices under a single rubric, that of the theatre of roots.

Theatre of Roots argues that the eponymous movement "decolonizes" the aesthetics of modern Indian theatre by challenging the visual aesthetics, viewing practices, and dramaturgical models of realistic performance ushered into India in the wake of British imperial rule. Mee argues that colonial influence transformed three important dimensions of theatre in India: it reconfigured the performer-audience relationship, commercialized theatre, and reimagined the very nature of theatre by valorizing literary text over performance. Mee somewhat emphatically declares the centrality of the theatre of roots in the practice of modern Indian theatre by claiming that no one who has worked in Indian theatre from the 1960s on has been left untouched by its influence.

Mee's multi-sited enquiry combines close readings of plays, rehearsals, and live and video productions with analyses of the debates and discussions of the Sangeet Natak Akademi. Mee's decision to focus on a handful of key productions allows her to offer complex, in-depth analyses of the various layers—aesthetic, formal, generic, cultural, and social—that impact and shape these productions. In this way, Mee portrays some of the tension between the institutional and cultural discourses on the one hand, and the actual practice of the theatre of roots, on the other. As both a proficient director and scholar, Mee is able to consider this body of work from a variety of creative and critical perspectives, enriching her agile analyses.

Mee introduces her topic by setting up the discursive and historical framework of modern Indian theatre, which allows the reader to situate theatre of roots within a wider context of colonial history, institutional state practices, and modern aesthetics. The introduction and the first chapter skillfully demonstrate the genealogies of the theatre of roots by tracing institutional and creative cultural practices through deft readings of key texts on Indian theatre history. Through detailed case studies of three exemplars of the roots movement—KN Panikkar, Girish Karnad, and Ratan Thiyam—Mee demonstrates that the theatre of roots is unique because it combines "structural elements, actor training methods, performer-spectator relationships and stylistic devices from specific traditional Indian performance practices with Western theatrical conventions to create modern plays for urban audiences" (26).

Mee's second chapter turns to the work of eminent theatre director KN Panikkar. Here, she discusses key concepts in Indian aesthetic theory—such as rasa, bhava, and abhinaya—through a probing analysis of Panikkar's 1987 production of Bhasa's Sanskrit play, Urubhangam. Her discussion also ably takes us through a variety of dramatic forms in Kerala, which include kutiyattam, kathakali, kalarippayattu, and theyyam, among others. Mee sketches out a brief but perceptive discussion on the ways in which the idea of the "self" in India is tied to action rather than essence. She brings not only her research and intellectual questions to bear on her discussion of Panikkar's productions, but also her alert directorial eye, which makes this chapter particularly rich. In her third chapter, Mee moves from a focus on rehearsal and production practices to the "modern play" most exemplary of the roots movement: Girish Karnad's Hayavadana (1971). Through a close reading of the hybridity at work in the formal, thematic, philosophical, spectatorial, and pragmatic issues that the play raises, Mee argues that this hybridity reflects postcolonial urban anxieties about reconciling two conflictual models...