The State of Indian English Drama

There are many challenges that the Indian English playwright faces - from the lack of opportunity and trained actors and sponsorship to the demands made by the language itself. The audience and theatrical companies that want plays in English have always had the choice of British and American plays available to them. Hence Indian English drama hasn't grown in the way drama in other Indian languages have. The history of Indian English drama demonstrates the presence of individual talents and sporadic theatrical activity. Like other genres in the language, Indian English drama shows the impact of British colonialism on Indian intellectual to re-imagine India and the Indian, Always a drama of the middle and upper classes, Indian English drama seeks more and more to be a drama of local spaces and communities. Indian English drama has an in-built inhibiting factor-the fact that most of our life is spent speaking other languages. English is usually associated with cetain functional spaces-certain offices or academic institutions. Even in these spaces English is not even the only language used any longer, except in written documents. Though these may have great impact on our lives, think of exam results for instance, the dramas of our lives are played out in a melange of languages, very often in languages other than English. Indian English theatre still feels part of the construction of the nation and national identity. The history focus not the nation as a whole, or even make the construction of the nation an overt part of their theatrical agenda, but those who focus on cetain communities classes, local situations.