Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Table of Contents
Introduction: Travels and Questions

HOME
The Quest for Tradition
Language of Theatre
The Enterprise

AWAY
Brecht in Kashmir
The Kashmir Trilogy
The Writing of Pah-la: A Theatre Journey across the Roof of the World
Devising in the Tibetan Transit School
Reading George C Wolfe’s The Coloured Museum In a New York Subway
Hamidur Rehman: A Journey through Bangladesh and Germany. A Journey about a Journey

OTHER GEOGRAPHIES
Lessons in Pausing: From a theatre in West Africa to a Monastery in the Himalayas
On Censorship
The Pandemic and the Theatre
Bibliography

Promotional Information

Drawing on his extensive experience working with theatre artists, students and thinkers across the globe - up to and including an hour-long audience with the Dalai Lama - playwright Abhishek Majumdar considers why we make theatre and how we see it in different parts of the world.

About the Author

Abhishek Majumdar is a Delhi-born playwright, theatre director, teacher and actor based out of Bangalore. His plays have won the Hindu Metro Plus Playwright’s award and the Toto Funds the Arts award and have been produced internationally. He was part of the International Playwright’s residency at the Royal Court Theatre, London, 2011 with his play The Djinns of Eidgah. Rizwaan, his play in English and Urdu was part of the selection for the first festival of contemporary Indian theatre in Paris. His plays have notoriously caused controversy - The Djinns of Eidgah being halted by authorities in Jaipur and his play Pah-La temporarily halted by the Royal Court Theatre in London. Currently, he is the artistic director of the IndianEnsemble Bangalore and also works with the HeadStart Children’s Repertory. He is a member of the Young Vic Directors' Network, London, and the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, New York, 2012. One of his works a director, Gasha (Hindi/Urdu/ Kashmiri), won the Best Play award at the META awards in New Delhi 2013. He teaches on the Playwriting course at NYU Abu Dhabi.

Reviews

Majumdar’s processes sound more like those of a detective or an investigative reporter than a writer observing the world from a garret. For his Kashmir plays, he spent time in police bunkers and the dens of militants. For Pah-La, he decided he had to go to Lhasa, whatever the cost.
*Arifa Akbar, The Guardian*

For 15 years, Abhishek Majumdar has created plays on the fragility of human lives trapped in war and other upheavals.
*Indian Express*

Majumdar has behind him a remarkable body of work. His plays sweep a wide arc – they have dealt with generational angst, the dark goings-on at a monastery in 8th century, the trauma of wasted childhood, the politics of food, and the heart of extremist violence. But at their core, they always talk of humanism and its fight against tyranny and greed.
*Scroll Magazine*

Abhishek Majumdar’s book is a thrilling read, crossing continents, entering conflicts, and always informed by a questing fusion of art and politics. It is an essential map to how playwriting and play-making might reflect the fractured world we share.
*Steve Waters, playwright*