World Theatre Day | 28th March 2022

For the celebration of World Theatre Day, a small group of theatre lovers and enthusiasts gathered in a cafe in Kolkata to discuss the understanding of community theatre practice in Bengal. The speaker, Anshuman Bhowmick has covered the range of ideas and concerns that we share about the community theatre practice.

The talk started with the history of folk theatre in Bengal and described how the practice started. The need of being together and living together created some ritualistic practices in ancient history. The way in which the people came together and practiced rituals shaped the form of theatre. That is how the community theatre practice started in Bengal and evolved and developed over time.

The history of Bengali theatre is saying that the practice of proscenium theatre came with the British emperor. Along with that, the usage of the stage, and architectural model in set design came in. As this style of theatre got adapted by the elite class of Kolkata, Bhadrolok, it started dominating the theatre scenario. Over a period of time, Bengali theatre became proscenium stage- oriented theatre and got tagged as mainstream theatre practice. This categorization kept the community theatre outside. There is a pre-set hierarchy that keeps the community theatre practice out of the mainstream, which was not considered ‘high-art’. In the same way, the word or tag ‘folk’ has been created through the politics of class and caste and by tagging an art form as ‘folk’, it tends to highlight it as a non-mainstream art form. Hence, the current system has discarded the word ‘folk’ in theatre practice and emphasizes the term ‘community’ in theatre practice. In Bengali, it is called Lokanatya where the word Loka recognizes people. 

The current theatre academia considers Natyashastra as the dictionary of theatre practice. Bhowmick says that the community theatre practice in Bengal is older than Natyashastra. The ancient texts like Charyapad have mentioned how ritualistic practice has been there as a form of entertainment. The word Nataka has been mentioned in the text. Later, the rituals have created songs and kinds of music that describe the daily life of common people and created pieces like Mangalkabya which has been performed in many places of Bengal. These were the root of Bengali theatre which never had the citation of stagecraft that Natyashastra describes. Though the proscenium theatre has been influenced by the community theatre.

In the present scenario, the practitioners who have studied theatre at various national universities are going back to their roots and taking elements from the community theatre, they are creating new works. The urban practitioners are understanding the importance of the practices. Therefore, the contemporary theatre scenario is no anymore bounded in the proscenium stage but also moves beyond through experimentations. That is the way in which the ancient community theatre practice is making connections with contemporary. Though some forms are not being performed anymore, the practices which remain, are evolving and transforming as time requires. It is also necessary to have the representation of community theatre people in the decision-making committee. It is essential that the voice of people who practice community theatre, be heard by the authority who has the administrative power. That is how the community theatre practice in Bengal is continuing to be alive and going forward with its evolution.