Non-British & Indian Flashcards
Summary of Dream on Monkey Mountain?
Derek Walcott
Dream on Monkey Mountain was first published in 1970 with a collection of short plays entitled Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays. It was produced and broadcast on NBC in 1970. Produced off-Broadway by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1971, it won an Obie Award that year for “Best Foreign Play”.
Makak, and old hermit has lived his life on Monkey Mountain in the Caribbean. He starts moving towards Africa after having a dream. He is not bothered about how to reach there. He is accompanied by Moustique, his friend, who is killed in a riot at the market. Makak is sent to the jail but he escaped to go back to Monkey Mountain.
The Play shows the search for home and colonial oppression and ends with a beheading. At the end, he has a lot of insight about the world.
Plays by Wole Soyinka?
Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright, poet and essayist.
• He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African to be honoured in that category.
• Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. In 1954 he attended Government College in Ibadan, subsequently University College and University of Leeds in England. After studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London.
• He writes extensively about his childhood in one of his memoirs, Aké: The Years of Childhood (1981).
• His first major play, The Swamp Dwellers (1958), was followed a year later by The Lion and the Jewel, a comedy that attracted interest from several members of London’s Royal Court Theatre.
• In 1970, he produced the play Kongi’s Harvest, while simultaneously adapting it as a film of the same title.
• In June 1970, he finished another play, called Madman and Specialists. Together with the group of 15 actors of Ibadan University Theatre Art Company In 1971, his poetry collection A Shuttle in the Crypt was published. Madmen and Specialists was produced in Ibadan that year.
Summary of Dance of the Forest?
The four mortals are Rola, an incorrigible whore nicknamed Madame Tortoise, who was then a queen; Demoke, now a carver and then a poet; Adenebi, now council Orator and then Court Historian; and Agboreko, Elder of Sealed Lips, a soothsayer in both existences
Eshuoro seeks vengeance for the death of Oremole, a devotee of Oro and apprentice to the carver Demoke, who killed Oremole by pulling him off the top of the araba tree that they were carving together. Ogun, the patron god of carvers, defends Demoke. Ogun (the god of iron, war, and craftsmanship of the Yoruba, Soyinka’s own society) and Oro (the Yoruba god of punishment and death) represent antithetical forces that continuously interact until their hypothetical synthesis, through which the mortals would attain self-understanding.
About Mahesh Dattani?
Mahesh Dattani(1958-) was born in the city of Bangalore in Karnataka. His parents came from Porbander of Gujarat. He went to Baldwin High School and St. Joseph Collage of Arts and Science, Bangalore. He helped his father to run his business for a while but his passion for Theatre made him participate in many events in college where he attended workshops too of acting and direction in plays. • He took training to learn Bharatnatyam under Chandrabhaga Devi and Krishna Rao in Bangalore. And then went on the do a Post-Graduation in Marketing in Advertisement Management. He started a theatre group called Playpen in 1984.
Summary of Where there is a Will?
- He wrote his first play Where There’s a Well which was played in the Deccan Herald Festival, for which he got a lot of praise with the audience’s “laughter, laughter and laughter” which gave him a lot of confidence.
- Where There’s a Will (1988) is about a patriarch called Hasmukh Mehta who lives in Bombay. He doesn’t give any value to anyone in his house. He has no love for his wife Sonal, his son remains unhappy because his father gives no attention to him and his daughter-in-law is fine with him just for money. His background and inherited patriarchy from his father is the reason for his behaviour. He too was married quite early and had to unwillingly take care of his family. Then Hasmukh is shown talking to his dead body. When the family knows about the will he has left they curse him for their sufferings. Kiran, Hasmukh’s mistress has got the control of the will. It is hinted that Preeti might be involved in the death. The play talks about the inherited violence of patriarchy which makes human beings behave like dictators. In the end the victims of the patriarchy become one to end the play with a peaceful conclusion, but the questions it leaves us to ponder upon are still to be addressed.
Summary of Dance Like a Man?
Dance Like a Man (1989) is about Jayraj and his wife Ratna who want to become a Bharatnatyam dancer but his father is against it. They abandon the house in order to learn dance. Ratna makes a deal with Amritlal her father-in-law to prevent him from dancing in as only then she can be allowed to dance. This brutal act kills Jayraj’s self-esteem and he becomes a drunkard for life. Their daughter too becomes a dancer and that makes Ratna jealous of her. The play ends with showing both the older and younger Jayraj and Ratna side by side where the younger ones are ready to dance and the older ones are talking about their failure to dance like a god. The play makes us discuss the gender roles and how gender stratification makes those who want to do want they want in life being bounded by the codes of the society. It again discusses something which is not discussed on a regular basis.
Summary of Tara
By Mahesh Dattani
Tara(1990) is about a girl who is born along with her brother joined with him at the hip. The doctors say that they can only be separated through an operation but only one of them will survive. The mother Bharati wants the boy to survive because she thinks only a male can keep the family inheritance going forward. The operation makes Tara crippled but her brother Chandan is all healthy. Tara leads a frustrated life and dies in the end. It is the social prejudice against a girl child which is revealed through this play. Tara cannot lead a proper life because of her parent’s choice and that fact took away her life.
Summary of Bravely Fought the Queen?
In Bravely Fought the Queen(1991) Dolly and Alka are sisters who are married to Jiten and Nitin Trivedi. Jiten beats up Dolly on the order of Baa, his mother. And a deformed child is produced later by them. We come to know that it is because of Praful who is Dolly and Alka’s brother, who had a homosexual relationship with Jiten that he got them married to the two brothers and they had to suffer for the whole life. In this way the suppression of natural feelings led to an act which is criminal. The play discusses the topic of homosexuality by portraying the men indulged in it not as all good, but to show how it can affect them and they can ruin life of others as well because of that.
Summary of Final Solution?
Final Solution(1993) begins with mob/chorus having five Muslim and five Hindu masks outside Ramnik Gandhi’s house. Daksha/ Hardika starts telling the audience her story on the highest level of the stage. After that we know through the voices of mob/chorus that a Pujari has been killed and they are holding Muslims responsible for it and want to deliver justice themselves. We then move to Ramnik Gandhi’s house where Aruna his wife is asking Smita her daughter to listen to her Grand Mother Hardika’s stories. Two men Javed and Bobby ask Ramnik to save them from the Hindu mob outside who are bloodthirsty to kill them. After some hesitance from Aruna they take refuge there. We then come to know that Smita knows the two men as Javed is Tasneem’s brother and Bobby is her Fiancé. Ramnik offers them jobs in his shop which Javed declines. Then it is known later that Javed was hired to kill the pujari to create a riot situation. We come to know from Daksha’s account that her neighbour Zarine’s father’s house has been burnt and her father-in-law offered a job to her father which they reject. Zarine misbehaves with her and she get filled with hatred for them. In the end we come to know through Ramnik that it was his father-in-law and husband who planned to burn the shop to take control of it themselves. There are various themes to the play. Religious fundamentalism is in the center of the play as we have mob/chorus representing the fanaticism as well as Javed who becomes a part of it. Hardika’s father-in-law and husband uses it for their advantage and Ramnik is trying to be a secular. It affects behaviour of people in a very cultural way as we can see the behaviour of Aruna and there are those who try to negate it like Bobby and Smita. History also is an important aspect of the play as we come to know the historical background of the family where Hardika’s father was killed in the partition riot and her husband’s involvement in the burning of the shop. The connection of the whole play to the pre and post Babri Masjid incident also connects it to history. Identity becomes an integral part of the play as people are fighting and confirming to their religious identities. The Mob/Chorus as well shows how the mask of one religious identity on the same people change their perspective completely. We come to know about the real reason of the burning of Zarine’s father’s house which was to capture the shop and remove him from competition. It is related to many real life incidents as well as we note from many accounts by journalists. Sate violence where the state does nothing but also becomes a part of it is also a factor to look into.
Summary of On a Muggy Night in Mumbai?
In On a Muggy Night in Mumbai(1998), it’s about characters like Kamlesh who is weak, and Sharad who is strong. Ed tries to mask of Prakash playing a dual role. Bunny hides his homosexuality and plays a good heterosexual as a husband. Ranjit goes abroad to be more accepted. Deepali is a radical lesbian who is totally comfortable with her identity. It is to bring out the discussion about homosexuality which is inside the closet to the front that Mahesh Dattani writes this work with all its realism. Though since it’s a Drama in the end, there are quite a few dramatic moments too in the play.
Summary of Seven Steps Around the Fire?
In Seven Steps Around the Fire (1998), he writes about the plight of the Hijra community. It is a play about a Hijra called Kamala, whose mysterious murder becomes the talk of the town. The play is an attempt to bring the community in focus. The Hijra community has to suffer a lot because they cannot have a family and the society only recognizes families. They can only sing and dance when someone gets married or someone is born, but they cannot give birth to anyone and their marriages are not acceptable to the society.
Summary of Thirty Days in September?
Thirty Days in September (2001) is about Mala who was abused as a child by her own uncle. The Uncle comes back to her house all the time and she has to go through a lot of trauma. Her mother cannot do anything because he is someone who helps the family. Her mother’s silence is also connected to her own past where she was abused herself. Deepak, Mala’s boyfriend tries to understand and cure Mala from her psychological traumas and mother and the daughter reconcile with the past. The play brings in the limelight the issue of child abuse, where most families in the country do not want such incidents to come out in the public just because they worry about their reputation. Which results in the deterioration of the mental health of the abused as most of the time, the abuser is there to be seen all the time.
A Tale of a mother feeding her child?
He also wrote a radio play called A Tale of a Mother Feeding Her Child which was broadcasted in BBC in 2000. It is about an English woman called Anna Gosweb who went to an Indian Village which was affected by draught after twenty years to meet her boyfriend Jaman in order to help him, but when she reached there he was already dead. Another play Clearing the Rubble is about the earthquake that happened in Kutch of Gujarat.
About Asif Currimbhoy?
Asif Currimbhoy (1928-) wrote thirty plays in which most dealt with political events, like partition in Restaurant(1960), about war between India and China in The Captives(1963), about Goan Liberation in Goa(1964), about Gandhi and freedom struggle as well as his assassination in An Experiment with Truth(1969), about the Naxalbaari movement in Inquilab(1970), about war in Bangladesh in Sonar Bangla(1972), about student agitation in The Dissident M.L.A.(1974) Almost all the plays are realistic portrayals but are not dealt in depth as the playwright is more interested in the dramatic elements of the real events that took place in each of the play and the excitement the audience will get after witnessing them.
Important plays by Asif Currimbhoy?
The Clock (1959) is about a salesman who has always failed in his life. In Doldrummers(1960) he dealt with the story of a Christian guy who is living a small house near the beach., The Dumb Dancer(1961) is about a Kathakali dancer who gets so much inside the character he plays that he starts believing that he is Bhima out there to kill Dusshasana that he becomes mentally disturbed by the thought of him being the killer.
