Negotiating spaces and voicing resistance: Nireeksha and women’s theatre in India

Abstract

Indian theatre has a long and rich tradition of adapting theory and practice from a variety of representational modes from western theatre that subsequently played key roles in major political and cultural upheavals and provided fodder for social changes and progress in Indian social and cultural life. Feminist theatre practice in India clearly demonstrates this cross-cultural interaction, and Nireeksha from the southern state of Kerala is one among them. As a women’s theatre, Nireeksha has a unique history of survival not only through its theatre productions but also through its committed social work in bringing women and children together as part of its community projects. This article focuses on Nireeksha’s incessant struggle to build resistance and find a creative space within the main stream theatre and patriarchal society of Kerala. I do a close analysis of Nireeksha’s performances and its methodology of practice to understand and explain how aesthetics and ideology inform the practice and processes of the leading women’s theatre groups in Kerala.