Badal Sarkar and His Third Theatre : Place and Position in Theatre Movement

Abstract

Badal Sarkar was an influential dramatist and theatre director of India. His third theatre is also known for its anti-establishment nature. He wrote more than fifty plays, among them ‘Ebong Indrajit', ‘Basi Khabar', ‘Saari Rat', ‘Baaki Itihaash' , ‘Pralap', ‘Tringsha', ‘Shatabdi', ‘Pagla Ghoda' , ‘Shesh Naai', ‘Sagina Mahato', ‘Michil' etc. are the most important literary pieces. He was awarded Padmashree in 1972 and Padmabhushan in 2010 by the Government of India. Mr. Sarkar, through his ‘third theatre' had broken the rules and conceptions of theatre bound by convention. His third theatre is the theatre of such a unique style and it has such a latent power that can stir and arouse the spirit in the people of both town & village, whether they are literate or illiterate. Third Theatre not only draws the subaltern people it is also capable of arousing the spirit in them protest against the bourgeois politics. In this research paper the special space of the third theatre of Badal Sarkar has been studied and through this study it has been attempted to comprehend its very nature.