If one were to trace the trajectory of the Indian English stage in India, it is very likely that the researcher will discover that the model of youth/amateur theatre is at the heart of it. This is not to say that other language theatres in India are any less influenced by productions made by young people; indeed the broad (and definitely not water tight) categories of experimental and commercial theatre have for instance largely defined the space that youth theatre continues to occupy in the context of Indian Theatre, both past and present. Inter-College and other theatre competitions are for example, fertile platforms for youth theatre across languages. Marathi theatre is a very good case in point here.

However if the researcher has to probe further, s/he may come across some interesting features that differentiate the young Indian English practitioners from their peers in other language theatres in India. These features concern and range from the historical and cultural peculiarities of the Indian English Theatre per se to its performance in metropolitan epicentres like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai. Since it is not possible here to analyse and elaborate upon the journey of the Indian English stage and to closely examine its ramifications that are located in historical and socio-cultural processes, it would perhaps help to simply highlight a basic understanding of what youth theatre is and its changing dynamics vis-�-vis the Indian English stage today. For this purpose I have selected three recent Indian English productions.

I must however emphasize that by no means are these productions the best and only case studies in view of the thesis concerned and that they are at best, entry points to a topic that demands a more rigorous study. It just so happens that I have recently (between 25th October and 1st November 2008) seen these plays, almost consecutively and that all three productions appeared to be good enough candidates to be illustrative of how the young Indian English stage is growing and of how it is becoming more visible and confident.

A simple understanding of youth theatre follows from the theatre that young people (typically between mid- teen years to the mid twenties) do. These young people are most likely to be new to the stage and may or may not display a finer understanding of the aesthetics and of the mechanisms inherent to performance art in their first few productions. Moreover they have a proclivity for all things experimental. But while youth theatre can be amateurish not all amateur theatre is made up of young people. Both youth and amateur theatre however do not exist from a strictly speaking monetary point of view.

Given the constant and the uphill struggle for limited or absent financial resources and other infrastructure, most theatre in India by default falls under the Amateur, Youth and Experimental Theatre categories. But again not all Experimental Theatre is necessarily amateurish or driven by young people (in several cases quite the contrary is true and often it is experimental theatre that becomes a barometer for excellence). These so-called categories may overlap with each other but it is necessary to underline the finer distinctions that could exist between them.

Against this nebulous and broad background, the questions that follows in the context of the young Indian English stage today and the three contemporary plays under consideration are: How has the Indian English stage in general asserted its presence? And, of what this assertion has come to mean for its young practitioners? The limited scope of this article does not make it possible to address these two questions from a pan Indian English Theatre perspective and neither is it possible to address these questions at length here. I can best speak for the Indian English Theatre in Mumbai, which given its sheer number of plays can however be argued to be fairly representative of English Theatre in India. The three select plays under review are all Mumbai based.

It is interesting to see how from the late eighties and especially from the mid nineties onward, Indian English Theatre has been slowly but steadily been able to overcome what in a nutshell can be described as an identity crisis. There are still attendant problems to debate and discuss, especially where original writing is concerned but there is a sea-change in attitudes. Indian English Theatre in Mumbai can no longer be branded as elitist or South Bombay theatre. The older generation of its artistes may still suffer from a colonial hangover (for no fault of theirs perhaps) but increasingly a great number of them, both young and old have shown a commendable willingness to self-examine the kind of English theatre they have been doing. The same people are also learning and borrowing from other dominant language theatres such as Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati.

While sloppy re-makes of Broadway and West End Musicals continue to be made, the Hinglish play of the early and mid-eighties has more or less deserted its slapstic and sleazy comedy mould. The use of other Indian languages in the Indian English play today is only naturalizing and thereby enriching the Indian English Theatre experience. According to me, at least six important factors have been greatly instrumental in giving the Indian English stage in Mumbai a sort of a makeover. These are:

-Original Play Writing in Indian English: It is little wonder that you can actually count on your fingers the few Indian English playwrights who have made a significant contribution to the India English stage since Independence. Amongst the older generation are Dr. Gieve Patel, Pratap Sharma, Gurcharan Das and from the mid and late eighties, one can name Cyrus Dastur of the DOONGAJI HOUSE fame, Mahesh Dattani and Ramu Ramanathan. These playwrights (I haven't included all names here) have been able to successfully provide a singular and modern Indian English Theatre experience in all its complexity. Playwright, Director and Writer Ramu Ramanathan's plays while superbly exploring contemporary subjects have also played with various styles. Ramu himself started as a young theatre person during his college days and has since grown to become one of the best contemporary, original playwrights in Indian English Theatre.

-Timing:The socio-political and cultural fabric of India has undergone significant change since the early nineties. In the case of Indian English Theatre, with its urban centres reflecting this ninety-degree change, contemporary foreign plays produced in the original are more accesible in terms of social relevance today. It is not that Indian English Theatre in the past did not produce good productions of foreign scripts (particularly those of American and British plays) but a contemporary playwright from the West or elsewhere today is able to seek a greater resonance in a globalizing Indian culture.

-New Media and Technology:Both these factors have directly as well as indirectly greatly influenced the theatre, especially the theatre that is being done by young people today. In the theatre itself, new media and challenging performative devices while not commonly used have made their apperance. Productions directed by Rehaan Engineer and The Company Theatre are prominent examples. On the other hand the Internet and mobile technology like the SMS have been able to provide faster, free and cheaper modes of communication. Young theatre people are able to connect with not only their audiences but also with other agencies (national as well as international) interested in their work.

-Seminars, Workshops and Festivals:A very important seminar on Indian English Theatre in the late nineties was curated by Ramu Ramanathan. This seminar examined and debated the concerns and the peculiarities of the Indian English Theatre scene. Again internal and sometimes open-for-all workshops and events held by groups like The Company Theatre, Rage, Working Title and Q Theatre Productions (QTP) have helped the artistes to engage with new ways of doing theatre. Festivals like the Writers' Bloc and youth theatre festivals like Thespo (participants have to be under 25 years of age for Thespo) have been creative conduits for young and new people in the theatre. In fact the Writers' Bloc festival and Thespo have singularly been able to build on the amateur Indian English Theatre in Mumbai in the past few years. This scene while not necessarily being vibrant is growing.

-Professional support for Youth Theatre:Established groups like The Company Theatre, QTP and Akvarious Productions encourage youth theatre initiatives. The Company Theatre for instance has its youth theatre wing called Evam while QTP besides organizing Thespo has partnered with Prithvi Theatre to regularly showcase plays by young people. Again individuals like Ramu Ramanathan continue to engage with young people and in the process not only harness young talent but also create refreshing theatre.

It is in this context (by no means exhaustive) that Indian English Theatre has asserted itself vis-�-vis the larger theatre scene in the country and the last five factors have especially closed on the gap between the professional and the young Indian English Theatre in Mumbai. To further underline this thesis I present MR. KOLPERT, THE SHAPE OF THINGS and JAKE'S WOMEN. All these foreign plays were produced in the original, with the exception of JAKE'S WOMEN to some extent. This play stuck to the original and yet Indianized it by simply changing the names of the characters and the locales.

German Playwright David Gieselmann's MR. KOLPERT (its English Premiere took place in the UK in May 2000) was part of the Thespo Festival in 2005. Directed by Anshuman Jha, the play is a black comedy on the lines of Edward Albee's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF. But in spite of the structural similarities between the two plays, a more dangerous game is played in MR. KOLPERT. Urban boredom and frustration find a chilling resolution in the play and once again there are no winners to speak of.

Anshuman Jha's production lights up a cozy enough drawing-room whose centrepiece is a huge trunk. Ralph Droht (Anshuman Jha) and Sarah Kenner (Nisha Lalwani) are getting ready to meet their dinner guests, another couple- Edith and Bastian Mole (Amrita Puri and Sukrit Sharma). At the very beginning the stage is set for suspense and events unexpected. No sooner are the introductions made, the dinner party is set for a charged atmosphere, given Bastian's high-strung nature that is riled by Ralph and Sarah's casual and yet provocative statements. Edith on the other hand tries to maintain peace but the chaos is well under and even the Pizza delivery boy (Abhishek Saha) is caught right in the thick of it.

Jha's production while being able to capture the humour and the suspense in the play suffers from underplayed and weak performances, with the exception of Abhishek Saha's and Sukrit Sharma's. As a result the pace of the play falters and the characters are not convincing enough. Ralph's profession is that of a chaos scientist while Bastian is an architect. These professions are not without meaning in the play and interestingly enough become personifications of the order we take for granted and of the chaos that is silently bubbling under.

The production's prized moments are the entries that Abhishek Saha makes. The tableau at the end creates a visual impact even if it's not presumably bold enough. The scene echoes the fragility of lives, which while seeking to find more meaning are led to extreme actions.

Produced by Akvarious Productions, the latter two plays- THE SHAPE OF THINGS (2001) and JAKE'S WOMEN (1992) opened consecutively in Mumbai. Written by filmmaker and playwright Neil LaBute THE SHAPE OF THINGS takes on a rather interesting plot to raise fundamental questions concerning art. The story while exploring the friendship and intimacy amongst four young people in an American university, reveals an ingenious even if a disturbing and provocative end.

Evelyn, an attractive graduate art student befriends Adam who is an Eng Lit. student and who works at the local museum. Adam in spite of his sense of humour is lacking in confidence and self-esteem. He gets drawn towards Evelyn's defiance and to the sexuality and confidence she exudes. Evelyn in turn sets upon transforming Adam who mildly resists but eventually gives in as two of his closest friends, Jenny and Philip watch on. In time they too come to be involved.

Directed by Siddharth Kumar, the production has a simple enough set design but could have used the space more effectively. The space demarcations were clumsy in places (in fact this was also a problem with JAKE'S WOMEN) and the screen in the background while setting an irreverent tone for the play, dosen't seem to sustain interest in spite of the restrained love scenes between Evelyn (Diksha Basu) and Adam (Vivek Gomber) projected on it.

Evelyn is the main driver of the plot in the play but Diksha Basu's portrayal of the character left much to be desired. She however salvaged her insipid performance towards the end of the play, which is intriguing and shocking in turn. Vivek Gomber on the other hand does a fairly good job as does Digvijay Savant who plays Philip. Nayantara Roy as Jenny has her moments too. Ultimately the play captivates in its denoument and effectively becomes a simulataneous debate on the dynamics of power and control in human relationships and on the nature and function of art itself.

Neil Simon's plays with their blend of comedy and drama have been hugely popular. JAKE'S WOMEN while perhaps being reflective of Simon's own internal struggle with the death of his first wife Joan (as movingly captured in his memoir: 'Neil Simon Rewrites: A Memoir') has the author's trademark ability to effectively use humour to the advantage of his plot. JAKE'S WOMEN thus focuses on a writer who loves his second wife but is living under the shadow of his former deceased wife. Not only that but he also can't seem to get away from the unconscious need of the other women in his life such as his sister, psychiatrist and daughter from his first marriage.

His present marriage is therefore naturally complicated and his second wife and he decide to part ways for a period of time. Ultimately the crisis is resolved and all's well that ends well. In the process the play becomes a funny and yet intuitive exploration of a writer's struggle with his creative work on the one hand and his personal life on the other.

Mrunmayee Lagoo's directorial debut leads a fairly competent cast of actors not new to the stage (Hidayat Sami, Ratnabali Bhattacharje, Shivani Tankshale & others) but both in terms of direction and overall performances, the production falls short. In spite of giving an Indian context to the play, it does not seem to fittingly capture the ethos of the original work. No doubt it entertains but one comes away with the feeling that the text could have been better explored and even staged. In fact this is one of the more serious problems of young Indian English stage people tackling foreign scripts.

Sometimes the script itself, as in the case of plays like WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF does not sit easy with young and inexperienced directors and actors. But a more benovelent view does accommodate the fact that were not young actors to experiment with foreign plays, a native audience may never get to see these plays in action. So while experimentation in this context has its credibility it needs to be more intellectually engaged with.

Were we to extend this analogy to performance itself we come across yet another problem that these young theatre people should recknon with very seriously. This problem is entirely upon the young people to solve. There is a very casual attitude towards the fundamentals of performance such as voice projection and clarity for instance. These young people do not take it upon themselves to hone their talent in a sustained manner that is guided by the very nature of inquiry. Hence in many a case, attitude becomes a misguided replacement for sheer substance. Again varying accents remain a soft spot for American and British plays produced in Indian English. This problem may never have a satisfactory solution but it needs to be more finely understood, especially by the young people who are beginning to pursue theatre.

Another great problem concerns the dispropotionate lack of original writing in Indian English by young people. This is almost an irony because in spite of festivals like Writers' Bloc and extended support from groups like QTP and Akvarious, there is very little that calls for a provocative and an engaging theatre experince. Having said that some of these young people are promising. In fact in September/October this year itself, I happened to see a first-time professional, and more importantly an original play (LIKE DAT ONLY!) by a group made up of solely young people (also most of them I think were debuting) and I came away thinking that fine, this may not be great theatre but there is a spark that's not to be missed.

The young Indian English theatre scene is undoubtedly making its mark and is at least currently bustling with activity. It now needs to engage with its problem areas in order to bring about more satisfactory theatre experiences. If that indeed happens it can pave the way for a theatre that is willing to push the envelope.

*The writer is Editor of this site, a theatre critic and an academic keenly interested in Theatre & Performance Studies..