Dance Like A Man Play Analysis
Ms. Thazuthedethu Jerin Jacob
Mentor- Mr. V. K. Singh
MA (P)
02/11/2015
Gender Trouble in Dance Like a Man
Mahesh Dattani is an Anglo-Indian playwright and theatre artist whose contribution to Indian theatre is deemed to be of paramount importance. His works deal with issues related to gender roles and their stereotyping, the conflicting theme of tradition and modernity, love, sex, homosexuality, alternate sexuality, violent treatment of women, promiscuity and so on. His play, Dance like a Man, received critical appreciation and was acknowledged of questioning gender stereotypes and societal expectations of genders, thus being a notable work in the field of Indian contemporary theatre.
Dance Like a Man, a stage play in two acts, questions an amalgamation of societal norms and gendered issues and very much mirrors the society it portrays. The issues that are even subtly touched upon and discussed in the play were in vogue during the post-independence scenario of the Indian society. The idea of a male dancing, an over-ambitious woman failing in her role as a nurturer, money controlled power structures, a society still reeling under the
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Anjalie Multani observes, the simile contained in the title is suggestive of the central question put forward by the male protagonist, Jairaj, “is [if] he [can] dance like a man”, as the very notion of dance is opposed to that of maleness. Beena Agrawal in her article “Gender Issues in Dance Like a Man: A Socio-Psychological Analysis” observes that “The social convention of gender binary spoiling the grace of life both for male and female is the focal point of the play Dance Like a Man.” She also says that what the play portrays “…is a conflict of colonial sensibility and progressive ideology, social expectations and individual
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