Badal Sircar and the Changing Language of Third Theatre

Being theoretically Brechtian and politically Marxist, Badal Sircar revolutionized Bengal Theatre by means of his ‘Third Theatre’. He theorized it in his essays e.g. “The Third Theatre”, “The Changing Language of the Theatre”, “Voyages in the Theatre: IV Shri Ram Memorial Lecture.” et al. collected under the title, On Theatre, published by Seagull Books, Kolkata in 2009. This collection, especially the aforementioned essays attracted me most as I found that Sircar was not theorizing just for the sake of it. In 1971, Badal Sircar and his group Satabdi reached the crossroads, one proceeding along the path of conventional proscenium productions and the other approaching the Third Theatre. Sircar historically opted the second. The proximity of the spectators, the intensity of communication, the subtlety of projection and several such aspects, usually expected in a theatrical performance is absolutely unimportant in Third Theatre. On the contrary Badal Sircar preferred the fact that this theatre could reach the working people of villages and slums who would never have come to his Intimate Theatre in Kolkata. It has never been his intention, to do a play just to prove that any play can be produced in this form. This new theatre was not a matter of form to him, but that of a philosophy and therefore he always started from the content. His determination to move out of proscenium theatre is rooted in his conviction that common people, being aware of their surroundings, would bring about a radical change in society. I would like to bring his productions and his theorizations, both concerning the Third Theatre on the same platform.