The Political Theatre

In all my publications and declarations, I have always made it unmistakably clear that a theatre for which I am responsible must be revolutionary (within the limits that its commercial situation prescribes) or nothing at all. Any theatre I manage, serve neither to produce ‘art’ nor to do ‘business’. (Piscator 320)

– Erwin Piscator, The Political Theatre: A History 1914-1929 (1978)

Utpal Dutt (1929-1993) was one of the eminent theatre personalities of modern India. Dutt’s anti-imperialist approach and anti-fascist ideology focused on staging the political plays in order to propagate a popular communist uprising against the bourgeoisie government in New Delhi and West Bengal in the post-independent phase of Indian

He is the antagonist of the play. He is a representative of the oppressive force of the Central Government which has discriminated the people of West Bengal by not giving them sufficient food and adequate financial support. In the essay, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”, the French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser (1918-1990) writes:

The ‘State’ is defined in the Marxist tradition as a ‘force of repressive execution and intervention in the interests of the ruling classes in the class struggle conducted by the bourgeoisie and its allies against the proletariat’. This is its basic ‘function’. It is, in that sense, an apparatus or instrument by which the ruling class cements its hold on power. (Althusser 128)

In Nightmare City, Dutt’s portrayal of a formidable businessman, the policemen, the gangsters and an absurdly sanctimonious editor of Bengali newspapers like Jugantar and the Anandabazar reminds one of Althusser’s notions of ‘Repressive State Apparatus’(RSA) and ‘Ideological State Apparatus’(ISA). While the former functions predominantly by repression (including physical repression) and the latter functions by ideology. In analyzing the complex social structure that asserts its hegemonic dominance through various instruments of power in Dutt’s Nightmare City, one may refer to Michel Foucault’s observations

In the book, Towards a Revolutionary Theatre, Dutt observes that, ‘We have seen plays which begin with a fierce attack on the ruling class and end in a whimper of complaint for better treatment, as if the ruling class is basically kind and will listen to this plea’ (Dutt 74). He categorized these plays as the semi-bourgeois or the anti-establishment plays. According to Dutt, ‘the revolutionary theatre must, by definition, preach revolution’ (Dutt 74) to execute ‘a radical overthrow of the political power of the bourgeois-feudal forces, a thorough destruction of their state machine’ (Dutt 74). He considered it crucial to depict the ruling class as a ruthless enemy and to focus on the urgent need for revolution in order to transform the contemporary social system. In this context, one may refer to Rustom Bharucha’s observations in Rehearsals of Revolution: The Political Theatre of