Nightmare City

Utpal Dutt (1929–93), playwright, director and actor, was an inspiration and role model for the activist theatre practitioner. Whether through proscenium theatre, street performance, traditional strolling theatre-in-the-round, or cinema, Dutt tried to take revolutionary theatre to the widest masses, with political messages for every turning point in a highly sensitive and rapidly changing political scenario. He redefined his relationship with the political leadership again and again, got into violent confrontations with various forces, was driven underground, and was jailed in the process. His legacy of plays and other writings remains a valuable chapter in Indian theatre history.

This volume presents three of Dutt’s plays, in his own translation, each exploring human relationships and the tensions of class and power in a revolutionary situation. Hunting the Sun (Surya Shikar) takes us back to the pre-Mughal period, with Buddhism emerging as an intellectual revolutionary force; The Great Rebellion (Mahavidroha) is set on the battlefields of the First Indian War of Independence in 1857; and Nightmare City (Duswapner Nagari) is set on yet another battlefield—the city of Calcutta in the 1970s.