ABSTRACT
The experiments with modern theatre in tune with Western concept and technique were first felt in two opposite parts of India, that is Bombay and Bengal. The introduction of European style of proscenium theatre initiated a disjuncture into that cultural space with a concept of height and distance. The vacant cultural space, thus created in and around Calcutta, was captured by the European style of theatre during the second half of eighteenth century. Michael Madhusudan Dutta was one of the stalwarts among the Bengali dramatists who wrote some of the earliest original plays in Bengali. Dinabandhu Mitra, as a playwright, was most modern in his approach as he completely discarded the Puranic themes and concentrated on depicting the evil aspects of society of his time. The British were increasingly apprehensive of Bengali 'social plays that gradually slipped into making political statements through theatrical means. There was a new shift in production of theatre under the leadership of Girish Chandra Ghosh.
