Hayavadana and the Contemporary Theatre

Abstract

Hayavadana(1971) by Girish Karnad is an experimental play in many ways as it adopts stylistics features of the two major theatre forms moving away from the regionalist tradition of drama: Epic and Absurd. The Absurd dramatic tradition presents the post-modern human condition as against the conventional depiction of life. The conventional drama presents plays in a structured way with its beginning, middle and end. This paper attempts to trace Hayavadana in the light of both theatre traditions to evaluate how the play itself was a new influence on Indian drama that merged in it the influence of the existential philosophy of the West as reflected in the rapidly evolving theatre forms while presenting a tale from mythology on stage. Hence the paper attempts to unravel the enigmatic human relationship in the light of absurdism and incompleteness as a whole. Therefore, the paper is divided into two parts to understand the influence of the absurd movement on the theatrical style and to bring out the absurdity of the human relationships.Absurd Theatre, a form heralded by its proponents Samuel Beckett, Jean Genette, and Harold Pinter and Epic Theatre propounded by Bertolt Brecht are both distinct theatre traditions developed in the 20th century.