Collected Plays of Satish Alekar: Volume I

Satish Alekar, Mahesh Elkunchwar, and Vijay Tendulkar constitute the trinity who wrote and produced some of the most influential and progressive plays of modern Indian theatre, and in doing so, shaped modern Marathi theatre. This volume of Satish Alekar's Collected Plays, the second of two, includes some of his finest works in translation: Begum Barve and Mickey ani Memsahib. Alekar uses colloquialisms, traditional Maharashtrian performance practices, black humour, and devices from the theatre of the absurd to create an oblique sense of reality in his plays. Begum Barve (1979) is a lament for the cultural forms that are lost to modernity. Barve is a throwback to the lost era of Marathi musicals and the play is about his final attempt at living his life on his own terms--an attempt that is cruelly crushed, sadly, by his long-time partner. Mickey ani Memsahib (1973) is a surreal play about an Amazonian woman who controls her scientist husband physically and mentally, who in turn seeks his escape through his scientific experiments. The plot is almost novelistic and is a brilliant satire on the nature of scientific modernity. The plays have been translated by Shanta Gokhale and Priya Adarkar, respectively.