ABSTRACT
Rabindranath dreams of a new theatre were equally informed with this spirit of eclecticism, so that his receptivity to cultures of different parts of the globe helped him arrive at the model of a theatre that was inclusive, yet distinct for its own kind of identity. While Rabindranath’s notions of an emergent nation passed through these various phases, his literary career (including his dramatic/theatrical oeuvre) evolved and matured, continuously interacting with various cultures, Indian and foreign. For the performance of the prose play Chandalika Rabindranath was often the sole narrator of the performance and followed the style of kathakata. When he transformed the text into dance drama Chandalika, he retained much of the conversational mode of the prose play version so that the colloquial lines of that source text could be easily set to tune. The Javanese influence was perceptible in the performance and costuming of Rituranga; Javanese architecture, too, was suggested through the stage design of Surenbabu.
