Synopsis
Islam in Performance - Contemporary Plays from South Asia
Published by Methuen
The plays invite comparison with one another, engaging with the issue from perspectives of the three countries concerned:
Hindutva politics in India isolating the Muslim population for electoral gains
Radical Islamization of Pakistan paralyzing political governance and encouraging jihadi violence
And the ever-increasing Islamist threat to Bangladesh's founding secular ethos
Finally, this Anthology focuses on the suffering such exclusionary politics of religious nationalism has piled upon minorities across the region
Widely performed but largely unpublished, the plays with their geographic and stylistic range provide a good spectrum of some of the best writing in contemporary South Asian drama
The editor's scholarly introduction offers a framework for studying the plays as both texts and performance pieces
The six plays in the Collection are ...
Plays from Bangladesh
Payer Awaj Pawa Jai/At the Sound of Marching Feet by Syed Shamsul Haq (translated by the author)
Araj Charitamrita/Life of Araj by Masum Reza (translated by Bina Biswas and Sayantan Gupta)
Plays from India
The Djinns of Eidgah by Abhishek Majumdar
Bahut Dur Tak Raat Hogi/The Far-Reaching Night by Zahida Zaidi (translated by Ameena Kazi Ansari)
Plays from Pakistan
Hum Rokaen Gae/We Shall Resist by Anwer Jafri (translated by Sheema Kermani)
Dekh Tamasha Chalta Ban/Watch the Show and Move On by Shahid Nadeem (translated by Shuby Abidi)