Introspective theatre was established in 2002 in Delhi. It is not a conventional theatre group insofar as it does not look at theatre as a performing art per se.
Rooted in psychotherapeutic tradition of psychodrama and other forms of psychological theories/ techniques, and the use of emotional memory, affective associations and instinctual basis of affects and behavioural expressions employed in acting, the group looks at theatre as a means of understanding the self and society, especially in the light of changing socio-cultural moorings.
In its journey towards such an understanding, the group seeks to explore and rely on the human capacity to be both an observer and the observed of his or her own experiences and surroundings, hence the name, Introspective Theatre.
Production of plays by the group shall be informed by such an approach and public performance of the plays shall be a way of sharing the understanding, which the group hopes will provide a space for the spectators to introspect on their life experiences and their socio-cultural and historical moorings.
Director : Dr. A. Bimol Akoijam
Dr. A. Bimol Akoijam is a psychologist by training and a film and theatre enthusiast. He has taught at Jesus and Mary College, Delhi and the Department of Psychology, University of Delhi before he joined the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS, Delhi), a premier research institute of the country, where he works at present.
He also conducts training programs on counselling and human relations. The rich Manipuri modern theatre, especially the experimental theatrical movement of the 1970s and the early 1980s, inspires his outlook towards theatre. In 2002 he started the Introspective Theatre to explore the possibility of exploring human psycology and its socio-cultural moorings through theatre on the one hand and also
to employ it as a medium of enquiry, communication, personal growth and socio- political action on the other.
So far he has written three plays (Char Ratein Ek Din; Kanagee Punshi Kanagee Leela; Draupadi, Main Aur Vah Aaeena) and directed one (Azadi Ki Khamoshiyan). He was involved as a subject expert in a diploma production of the National School of Drama, Marat Sade( Directed by Sanmugahraja, 2002). He is also into films; presently he is working on two short films.
Productions :
Azadi Ki Khamoshiyan - August 2002 at National School of Drama, New Delhi
A play that explores the silences of 1947, a year marked by the celebration of freedom from the colonial rule and that of the enormous violence that still haunts the sub-continent. This was a play largely based on the works of Saadat Hassan Manto and the research works on the partition of the Indian sub- continent. It looks at the issue of violence and the collaboration between the individual psyche and that of the collectivity.
Draupadi, Main Aur Vah Aseena - Under Production
A play on sexual politics, especially how the women's body and sexuality become the sites of the wars that are engaged in the name of morality, nation and justice. It explores and comments on the "male gaze" and interrogates the "body-for-other"
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