Staging en/k/counter

Coevality of violence and theatre in India

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21721968
AutoresDebanjali Biswas (0000-0002-3653-8924, University of Oxford, autor de correspondencia)
Año2026
Volumen46
Número1
Páginas42-63
Fecha de publicación2026-01-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaStudies in Theatre and Performance (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1468-2761 • E-ISSN: 2040-0616
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14682761.2025.2551383
OpenAlexW4413846118
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas18

Manipuri theatre in postcolonial India owes its evolution and acclaim to three director-dramaturgs–Lokendra Arambam, Heisnam Kanhailal, and Ratan Thiyyam. Through exploration of three plays – Macbeth: Stage of Blood (1997), Draupadi (2000), and Chinglon Mapan Tampak Ama (2006) – this article locates the form, content, and context of each of them, interweaving analyses of the staged works and performances with narratives of everyday life gathered through ethnographic practices to offer new theoretical possibilities of reading performance in the context of violence. Beyond myth and lore, these plays indicate an understanding of the socio-cultural activities of the communities which reflect the militarism, pursuit and repression of self-determination movements, and internecine conflict in the region. While offering a critical dimension to the study of how violence acts as a framing device in Manipuri proscenium theatre, this article contextualises how unsettling disruptions are cited as en/k/counter or encounter in everyday life and performances. It explores how the interweaving of anthropological and performance-based research locates the coevalness of violence and art within interconnected narratives on agency and resistance in everyday life and on stage. Further, it proposes how such narratives might interpellate official narratives of violence and counterviolence while offering glimmers of refuge and repair

Art · Humanities · Sociology · Visual arts · South Asian Cinema and Culture · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · South Asian Studies and Diaspora