Asian Theatre and Drama - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... Decked up with a number of psychological and social issues, the play brought a remarkable fame to Tagore not only within the nation but across the globe as well. The combination of pathos and the humor operating hand-in-hand within the plot of the play enables a huge scope for a prolific presentation of the play on stage. Owing to this scope, a lot of modernization and improvisations have been incorporated within the plot of the original text while performance by various dramatists. PETA’s Ang Post Office which was performed in the 4th Day of the month of September in 2010, Directed by Grady Labad and Dramaturgy framed by Rustom Bharucha and the adaptation was done by Rody Vera. The entire play gives a different dimension to the language of humanity but the presentation of the ending scene, where the protagonist Amal is lying on the bed dying builds a spectacle unforgettable. The light, sound and action of the characters the moving of the bed, and the association of all the characters on stage transformed the macabre of death into a panorama worth viewing that has the strength to percolate through the mundane inhibitions and comprehension of human mind and transport the audience into some space belonging to cosmic realm .
Thesis Statement

This essay intends to focus on the ending scene of the performance of Tagore’s ‘Post Office’ by PETA and the intensity of its presentation through which the group is able to take the viewers on a cosmic ride almost.
Before analyzing the ending scene of the PETA’s ‘Post Office’ performance, it is very eventual to introspect into the original text from which the play has actually evolved; its themes, motif and most importantly a thorough judgment of its backdrop and context should also taken into consideration. Tagore’s ‘Post Office’ is a play from the pantheon of symbolic theatre. One can trace another plot running through the main plot of the play which is allegorical nature. The allegory inherent in the play, ‘Post Office’ by Tagore les at the pivotal motif of the play or the most potent theme considered. Illusion and reality at the end of the world and the eternal battle of life and death is the crux of the play. Tagore’s own fascination for the mysticism associated with death and life after death actually glossed the play, ‘Post Office’. Tagore’s idealism for the spiritual death finds profound expression through the presentation of Post Office. The dynamics of skepticism regarding the physical and spiritual death all through his life gets a proper expression in the play, ‘Post Office’. Amal dies a physical death, but his physical death is not his actual death. Amal seems to die, but his physical extinction does not lead an end to life’s unceasing voyages2. The village doctor was about to maltreat and put him to death, but Amal feels that when a patient is visited by the royal physician, then no one can fall into the clutches of death so easily. Through the fabric of metaphors Amal awaits the King’s letter to come to him directly pondering upon the window through which he can see the Post Office. The door or the route to the endless road opens at the closing scene of the play. The royal physician himself brings the message for Amal, but the message of emancipation from the hands of the royal physicia ...Download file to see next pagesRead More