ABSTRACT
This chapter probes the crucial role of Brechtian aesthetics between the late 1960s and early 1970s in creating a new strain of political theatre in India, which marked another use of the influence of Brechtian aesthetics in India. I argue that the formation of this new variant was the result of the creation of a “theatrical idiom” of Gestic realism through the dissemination of Brechtian aesthetics. I examine one such instance of Brechtian aesthetics with Gestus, a Brechtian device that establishes a nexus between body, history and society. Besides underscoring the role played by Gestic realism, I further propose that the device of Gestus is dependent on the social and political contexts of the target audience, which means that the Indian version of Brechtian theatre will continue to swerve into something new and different from its European counterpart. Drawing upon the 1970 performance of Teen Take Ka Swang (The Threepenny Opera) by the East German director Fritz Bennewitz, the chapter problematises and expands the purview of Brechtian scholarship in India. Broadly, it examines the capacity of Brechtian theatre to articulate the discourse of India.
