Remembering, Recording, Rethinking Theatre

Centrestage: Essays on Theatre, Indian and Intercultural brings together a wide-ranging selection of Ananda Lal’s critical writings, reflecting his long and influential engagement with theatre as scholar, teacher, translator, and observer. The collection spans Indian classical and modern theatre, intercultural performance, translation, and pedagogy, and bears the mark of a lifetime spent thinking carefully about performance in context.

One of the book’s main strengths is its breadth. Lal moves fluently between traditions, geographies, and periods, offering close readings of texts and performances alongside broader reflections on theatrical practice. The volume is divided into two distinct but connected sections. The first traces key moments in Indian theatre history, moving from the colonial period to the contemporary stage in Kolkata, and extending to questions of theatre pedagogy in present-day India. In these essays, Lal combines historiography with close observation, while also returning to his concern about the gaps in archival knowledge that shape how Indian theatre is studied and taught.

Political plays like Utpal Dutt’s Barricade which Lal translated feature in this section with the rider that Dutt was never translated because of his Marxist views. Feature highlighting the scenario of India in the 70’s. While Barricade gets the main focus, Lal also writes about Jokumaraswami, Pebet and Charandas Chor from three different regions of India. There is a crossover of dramaturgies noted between traditional Indian and Brechtian influences in Dutt’s case while the political invades the traditional region of folk theatre in the others..

The second section shifts focus to intercultural theatre, engaging critically with how Indian performance traditions are represented in global academic and theatrical contexts. Lal examines the work of internationally celebrated directors such as Peter Brook and Tim Supple, raising questions about interpretation, authority and cultural translation. Lal has commented on the inherent difficulties of adapting a vast epic like the Mahabharata for the stage or screen, arguing that even a nine-hour version like Brook's "sacrifices too much of such a source" through compression.

Where Supple was concerned Lal saw him as part of the Peter Brook legacy, bringing fresh perspectives to India’s passion for Shakespeare. Lal praised Supple's ability to foster genuine performances, allowing actors to speak English in their natural Indian accents in Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays in India, and adding local languages to the mix.

These later essays explore the larger frameworks through which Indian theatre is understood beyond its own contexts and on occasion – as in his essay on Midsummer Night’s Dream – plunged him into ‘hairtrigger’ scenarioswith critics abroad.

Lal’s essays are informed by his in-depth scholarship but written with clarity and restraint, avoiding an excess of theory. The writer’s particular strength lies in addressing intercultural theatre, where he brings both sympathy and scepticism to questions of adaptation, appropriation and dialogue between cultures.

One of the book’s key concerns is the lack of sufficient archival knowledge in Indian theatre studies. Over and over again, Lal draws attention to how fragile documentation, lost performance histories, and uneven preservation practices limit our understanding of theatrical traditions. Rather than lamenting this absence in a void, he shows how it affects interpretation, scholarship, and even contemporary practice. This focus lends the essays a quiet urgency, reminding readers that theatre history is as much about what survives as what has been forgotten.

As is only natural, the collection demands a certain familiarity with the plays and playwrights discussed, which may be beyond the ken of the average reader. Lal however provides synopses where required. This notwithstanding, the book’s cumulative effect is one of intellectual generosity and quiet authority. Lal consistently presents theatre as a living practice shaped by history, language, politics and performance conditions, rather than as an abstract theoretical object. Social and historical anecdotes add interest taking the essays beyond the academic.

The tone throughout is reflective. Lal does not set out to impose a single theoretical framework; instead, he asks carefully considered questions about how theatre works, how meaning is produced, and how audiences respond. His experience as a lecturer and director of plays comes through in the clarity of his explanations and his willingness to acknowledge ambiguity.