Ecology, Performance, and Activism in Badungduppa Theatre in Assam, India

Abstract: This article examines the integration of sal forest ecology in the performance practice of Badungduppa Kalakendra, a theatre group of the Rabha Indigenous community in the northeastern Indian state of Assam. The ecoperformance practice of the group centers around the community’s dependence on the forest for its sustenance and cultural identity. The group develops plays displaying their Indigenous ecological reciprocity in an open-air performance space, incorporating nature as a cocreator instead of an aesthetic backdrop. The group uses green dramaturgy to enhance environmental sustainability and to promote an ecological consciousness in its spectators. With references to two of its productions, this article highlights the major ecological and sociopolitical conflicts the Rabha Indigenous community faces and accounts for Badungduppa’s use of theatre for building resilience and fostering grassroots activism.