‘De-centred Stage’: Looking Select Alternative Theatres of Assam

The present paper attempts to look at the contemporary alternative theatre movement of Assam which debunks the traditional notion of theatre in terms of altering with open stage theatre amidst a rural and natural landscape. It was way back in late 1998, late Sukracharjya Rabha, a theatre activist started a genre of theatre performances under the banner of Baddungdupa Kala Kendra at his village Rampur, Agia of Goalpara district in Assam. In fact, the group has been organising a theatre festival in the village every year in winter amidst a natural landscape of deep Sal Forest thereby terming the festival as “Under the Sal Tree Festival” since 2008. This new form theatre deviates from the traditional structure of theatre as it decentres the traditional stage which is supposed to be situated at the centre with high position (in terms of height) from the audience and it explores a new kind of open-ended stage in an ecological atmosphere where the seats of the audience are arranged in a rounded and open way and with the same position (in terms of height) without no hierarchy. In fact, this new theatre of Badungduppa Kal Kendra also uses minimalistic setting and costume on the stage and in terms of performance, they emphasis more on gesture than on exaggerated dialogue. The main objective of their alteration of theatre is to connect theatre with the folk and the mass. Following “Under the Sal Tree Theatre” festival, many theatre activists come up to experiment new forms of theatres with open stage in the natural landscape with variations and consequently an alternative theatre movement is developed in contemporary Assam. The paper will look this theatre movement from Postmodern contexts.