Role of Theatricality in Samuel Fyzee-Rahamin's Play Daughter of Ind

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the theatrical aspects of SamuelFyzee-Rahamin’s play text Daughter of Ind. The playwright's theatricality comprises of a variety of distancing devices that are artistically positioned to realize the intended sociopolitical goals. To pop up the spectacle dimension of the said text, various situations, episodes, and personages are shrewdly juxtaposed against each other. This phenomenon inevitably necessitates the sense of urgency, immediacy, and the unfolding of the dialogic filters. A paradigm of analogies is introduced intentionally to complement and reinforce the dialectical configurations. Histrionic expressions and actions push the characters and the discourses towards the stagy world of acting. Theatrical imagery, the intervention of supernatural elements, the polyphony of competitive ideologies, and the narrational voice are the other features of theatricality that smartly challenge the coercive structures like patriarchy,colonialism, and the marginalization of the weak sections of the Indian society.Naivety is a common technique used by political dramatists to successfully enlist the attention of the audience. A theoretical framework for this study consists of postmodern theories on theater, especially Wladimir Krysinski’sessay Changed Textual Signs in Modern Theatricality.