THEA 2011 Lecture Notes - Koodiyattam
20 Mar 2014
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Most indian plays follow a pattern to greek and roman comedy: conflict and sruggle turns to unity and celebration. There is no chrus in indain theatre to bridge the gap between audience and the world of the play. But individual characters may talk o the audience, encouraging them to obser4ve the other characters. In ancient indian events often repeat themselves in new conexts sense of structure in a long play. King duhsanta and sakuntala gave birth to bharata, te legendary emperor who will give his name to india. Unlike greek drama, indian plays celebrate royalty of ancestery because they were written for performance in the palace of powerful kings. The tradition of sanksrit theatre ended with the rise of islam in northern india. But a version of it may survive in kerla (souther india) Kuttiyattam is a religious ceremony performed for at least 1,000 years. Worshippers performed the classic sanskrit plays, following the nayasastra.
