NABANNA (PB)

During the relief efforts in
the wake of the Bengal famine the IPTA created Nabanna—a play that tells the
story of the villagers of Aminpur. The Sammadar family is already battling
extreme food shortage, starvation and high-handedness of land sharks, when a
tidal wave destroys their crops, homes, hopes and everything. In the
desperation to survive, they are forced to walk to Calcutta. But their hope
of help from the Calcutta middle-class is soon dashed by the apathy and lack
of preparation that they encounter. They return to the village and resolve to
counter their fate with a new strategy. Nabanna is a watershed in the history
of the Indian stage on several counts. It marks a break from the commercial
stage and the inception of an activist, amateur theatre. It transcended the
limitations of the naturalistic stage to make way for a versatile décor which
added pace to the episodic action. This book includes a critical
introduction, which traces the context and significance of Nabanna and
testimonies by important figures of the first performance of the play.