Nabanna Of Famine And Resilience: A Play

During the relief efforts in the wake of the Bengal famine the IPTA created Nabanna�a play that tells the story of the villagers of Aminpur. The Sammadar family is already battling extreme food shortage, starvation and high-handedness of land sharks, when a tidal wave destroys their crops, homes, hopes and everything. In the desperation to survive, they are forced to walk to Calcutta. But their hope of help from the Calcutta middle-class is soon dashed by the apathy and lack of preparation that they encounter. They return to the village and resolve to counter their fate with a new strategy. Nabanna is a watershed in the history of the Indian stage on several counts. It marks a break from the commercial stage and the inception of an activist, amateur theatre. It transcended the limitations of the naturalistic stage to make way for a versatile d�cor which added pace to the episodic action. This book includes a critical introduction, which traces the context and significance of Nabanna and testimonies by important figures of the first performance of the play.

Categories: Fiction