ABSTRACT
The voice of the dramatist and that of the created character seemed to be collapsed together – more so when, in performance, Rabindranath played the role of Kabisekhar, foregrounding his oft-made declarations regarding the theatre and the language that it needs to adopt. With a crudely improvised stage and amidst scenery and surroundings of quite a primitive character. Dress, equipment, stage furnishing – there was an air of improvisation over the whole thing; and yet, all of it was in wonderful congruity and harmony. The 1923 production of Visarjan at the empire theatre deployed a stage design by Gaganendranath, in which “the blood-stained temple steps, designed in Cubist fashion, dominated the stage throughout, a lurid red light marked the entrance to the temple itself, invisible in the darkness beyond the wings”. More recently, particularly during the sesquicentennial year, the trend has been towards an interest in reading contemporary issues through the enactment of the plays.
