'Walking Out, Speaking Up' Book Review: The Unscripted Revolution

Walking Out, Speaking Up: Feminist Street Theatre in India

Deepti Priya Mehrotra

Zubaan

INR 795

A woman lying flat on her back in the grounds of the Delhi Boat Club - apparently dead - is a defining moment in street theatre and the start of a movement that is working to change the way society looks at and treats women. The book documents many such dramatic moments. Walking Out, Speaking Up is a significant and powerful study of the radical legacy of feminist street theatre in India. Deepti Priya Mehrotra meticulously documents how this ancient, often male-dominated form was fundamentally transformed by women, becoming their most accessible and immediate tool for social critique and political change. Her personal involvement in the feminist street theatre movement from the early 1980s became a guiding light to pursue conversations and research that culminated in this book.

The book is well assembled, bringing together meticulously collated archival history, in-depth performance analysis, candid oral histories and auto-ethnography. There is a reason for this approach - it allows Mehrotra to trace the journey of women from diverse regions who had the courage to stand up in front of audiences in the outdoors where everyone could see them and challenge deep-seated discrimination in an attempt to reshape the public discourse around issues like dowry deaths, sexual violence and every day patriarchy. 

The movement began to gain dramatic momentum in 1979 with groundbreaking plays like Om Swaha and Ehsaas. Both these plays have sections to themselves – Om Swha battling the fact that a dowry death was not just another incident with a dramatic showing at the Delhi Boat Club and Ehsaas which dealt with the #MeToo of the ’80s. The gut-wrenching  impact of these early works created a viral model for grassroots activism, demonstrated by the fact that over 80 scripts submitted to the women's resource group Jagori in 1986 were directly modelled on the spirit of Om Swaha. This was a "theatre of rage, pain, and protest," operating in synchronicity with the autonomous women's movement of the time.

Hum Awaz Uthayeinge — vividly portrayed abuse and sexism, disrupting the normative. They expertly fused social critique with intimate felt experience, exposing exploitation while offering alternative imaginaries and challenging entrenched patriarchies. Protagonists emerged to break silences, their pithy dialogues articulating complex ideas that ultimately influenced media, academia, law, and policy. While being of socio-political interest the groups were careful not to lose out on mass appeal since that would mean losing a bulk of their audience, the women who needed to watch and learn and steer away from situations that were becoming threatening.

Some plays stirred police protests and when auditorium staging was banned, the groups held performances under trees in the open.

 A key strength of Mehrotra’s research is its recovery-based approach, which lesser-known groups and marginalised voices often excluded from mainstream theatre scholarship brings to light for those interested in the subject.  This includes women from the villages who live around courtyards and women from Delhi bastis grassroots foundations and urban uprootings.  There are also explorations of how mythological and symbolic figures like Mother Mary can be reclaimed for today’s contexts in plays like Agar Mariam Hoti widening the context of the plays and yet keeping their subject grounded.

The book gives readers a detailed and fulfilling analysis of the genre's evolution, showing its vital intersection with moments of national upheaval, regional struggles and the interlocking systems of patriarchy and capitalism. Mehrotra successfully argues that feminist street-plays are   as influential as traditional political education methods, such as lectures or study circles. She details the collaborative process, explaining that every component, whether it is a poster, a line of dialogue, a frame, or a symbolic prop, is meticulously debated in the play creation process, concerning language, choreography, visual imagery and colour to maximise the impact of the final message.

Mehrotra does not describe the various scenarios without batting an eyelid. Through her pages she bravely delves into the inherent tensions and challenges faced by those who performed, including the risky issue of safety in public spaces for those going against the norm, the complex politics of representation across caste and class, and the struggle for sustaining long-term collective work. These sections illuminate the complex political and personal negotiations embedded in this form of resistance.

The writing is clear  reportage, making it accessible to a wide variety of readers including academics, activists  and theatre enthusiasts. If there is a problem it may lie in the dense detail which tends to skew the book away from the general public, however given the factors that have influenced street theatre at all levels, the text heaviness is a given. There are illustrations and photographs to break up the narrative and add a sense of historical and even satirical relief. The title speaks of the actions of women crossing the boundaries of home as well as those of the closed door theatre.

Walking Out, Speaking Up is an invaluable resource for performance studies, gender studies, and contemporary Indian cultural history. It is a necessary, expertly documented work that reminds us that feminist street theatre is not merely performed; it is lived, embodied  and radicalised in the courage of women who step into the streets to shatter the mould of the 'docile, invisible woman' and insist on their right to be heard.