The Wada Trilogy

With this trilogy, Mahesh Elkunchwar achieves a feat unique to playwriting in this country: developing a cycle which moves between many registers to unfold the evolving history of a family in present-day India mirroring the social and cultural shifts and changes that mark the twentieth century. From Old Stone Mansion (Wada Chirebandi) to The Pond (Magna Talyakathi) to Apocalypse (Yugant), we follow the fortunes and struggles of the Deshpandes of Dharangaon, once highly respected and well-off landed gentry, now caught between the memory of their own genteel past and the financial penury of the present. As members of several generations come to terms with their past and future in drastically different ways, we see an image of India negotiating its way through modernity. This edition supplements the text with a new introduction and an interview with the playwright by scholar and critic Samik Bandhyopadhyay.