The Scenes We Made: An Oral History Of Experimental Theatre In Mumbai is a richly detailed map of Mumbai's theatre landscape, tracing how fearless experimentation shaped the city’s stage from the 1960s to today. A non-fiction oral history and drama-focused chronicle, it speaks to theatre lovers, students, and practitioners who want to understand how ideas become performance—and why Mumbai's theatre culture remains a vital, evolving conversation. The tone is educational yet adventurous, inviting readers to relive the moments when the new challenged the old and redefined what good theatre can be.
Structured around memories, conversations, and archival notes, The Scenes We Made brings to life the people and spaces that nurtured groundbreaking work. Readers meet visionaries such as Ebrahim Alkazi, Vijaya Mehta, Satyadev Dubey, and Sulabha Deshpande, and discover how venues like Bhulabhai Desai Memorial Institute, Walchand Terrace, and Chhabildas School Hall became launchpads for some of Mumbai’s most influential productions. Plays like Band Darwaze, Aadhe Adhure, Hayavadana, and Uddhwasta Dharmashala surface through the voices of practitioners who lived through their creation, offering a vivid, theatre-by-theatre panorama of a city in creative dialogue with itself. The book moves through collaborations, rehearsals, design decisions, and performances, delivering a living sense of theatre as a cosmopolitan, fearless art form.
Whether you’re a student tracing Indian theatre history or a practitioner seeking ideas for staging and collaboration, the narrative unfolds concepts with clarity and warmth. The writing emphasizes how the new often opposes the old, how institutional spaces nurture risk, and how diverse voices converge to shape a shared stage language. The Scenes We Made captures the energy, improvisations, and tenacity that kept Mumbai’s theatre scene alive and thriving across decades.
- Comprehensive oral histories spanning five decades of Mumbai theatre
- Profiles of pivotal artists and the spaces that nurtured them (Bhulabhai Desai Memorial Institute, Walchand Terrace, Chhabildas School Hall)
- In-depth coverage of landmark plays such as Band Darwaze, Aadhe Adhure, Hayavadana, Uddhwasta Dharmashala
- First detailed documentation of a dynamic, collaborative theatre ecosystem
- Engaging, interview-driven storytelling that invites study and enjoyment
- Accessible writing that balances scholarly insight with vivid, memorable anecdotes
After finishing The Scenes We Made, readers gain a nuanced understanding of how Mumbai’s theatre community built a language for fearless experimentation and collaboration. It leaves you feeling connected to a lineage of artists who pushed boundaries, and it sparks curiosity about how performance, space, and memory continue to shape live theatre today.
