Curtains of Change

Deepan Sivaraman's Spinal Cord (2009), which won seven Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) in 2010, and Peer Gynt (2011), Sankar Venkateswaran's Quick Death (2008), Sahyante Makan's An Elephant Project and Water Station (2011), and M G Jyothish's Sagara Kanyaka - Lady from the Sea (2011), were celebrated for their powerful imagery and use of technology, including innovative light-and-sound design and video projections. The State Government's Department of Public Relations' National Theatre Festival is another important annual event. The theatre of the 1970s and 1980s was shaped by diverse forces: the experiences of the Emergency and post-Emergency periods; the left-wing ideology deeply entrenched in the cultural sphere; the film society and the "people's cinema" (janakeeya cinema) movement spearheaded by the maverick film-maker John Abraham; and the "Gulf boom" of migration of workers to west Asia.