So near, yet So Far

An influential dramatist and stage director, Badal Sircar (1925-2011) penned several acclaimed plays during the turbulent period of the late 1960s and 1970s in West Bengal. His own brand of experimental discourse the 'Third Theatre' is an urban theatre that is characterised by flexibility, intermingling of the performer and the audience to bring the two closer to each other, and low cost of production. The book covers Sircar's career and traces the journey of theatre in 19th-century Bengal from folk culture to the proscenium to open-air performances.