ജി. ശങ്കരപ്പിള്ളയുടെ തിരഞ്ഞെടുത്ത ഏകാങ്കങ്ങൾ

by G. Sankara Pillai

288 pages, Paperback

About the author

G. Sankara Pillai (22 June 1930 - 1 January 1989) was an Indian playwright, critic, and director who explored total theatre in a wide range of forms. He was one of the most versatile and towering personalities of Indian literature and the theatre scene. His symbolist works were instrumental in defining modern Malayalam theatre. The Nataka Kalari movement started by Sankara Pillai in 1967 has created some of the best theatre practitioners in the country. He won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1964 for the work . He also won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Theatre-Playwriting in 1979.

Prof. G. Sankara Pillai was born on 22 June 1930 at Nalthattuvila in Chirayinkeezhu taluk of Thiruvananthapuram district as the son of Ottaveettil V. Gopala Pillai and Muttaykkal Kamalakshi Amma. After completing his schooling from Kollam, Chirayinkeezhu, Attingal and Thiruvananthapuram, he passed his honours degree in Malayalam literature with first rank in 1952. He worked as a Lecturer in a college in Pathanamthitta for two years before joining in Kerala Sahitya Akademi for a research in Kerala's folk music. He worked in Madurai Gandhigram Institute (from 1957) and Lexicon office (from 1961) and Devaswom Board College, Sasthamcotta (since its inception in 1964).

While holding the post of Head of the Department of Malayalam in D.B.College Sasthamcotta, he initiated the Nataka Kalari Movement in 1967 by organising first of its kind. The Professor was also instrumental in the setting up of School of Drama at Thrissur under the University of Calicut, of which he was the founder director. He also held the post of Director at the School of Letters of Mahatma Gandhi University and was an Executive Member of National School of Drama.

Prof. Pillai's first work was a one-act play titled Snehadoothan (Messenger of Love) which was published in 1953. His other major works include Pushpakireedam (Flory Crown), Nizhal (The Shadow), Gurudakshina (Offering to the Master), Nidhiyum Neethiyum (Treasure and Justice), Maddalangal (Drums), Rail Palangal (Rail Tracks), Ponnumkudam (Golden Pot), Chithra Salabhangal (Butterflies), Thamara (Lotus) and Orukoottam Urumbukal (A Group of Ants).

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first came into touch with serious theatre during my college days - until then, my experience of plays were restricted to the formula-ridden potboilers presented in temple compounds during festival nights. These were very badly written, even more badly directed and melodramatically acted that I came to look upon drama as an inferior form of entertainment. Ironic, because theatre in Kerala is very advanced, with art forms like Kathakali, Koothu and Koodiyattom providing the highest levels of abstraction and stylisation (however, the lay person never thinks of these as drama).

G. Sankara Pillai totally revolutionised my perception of stage. Invariably, a large number of one-act plays staged during college drama competitions were written by him. His plays are simple to produce (mostly bare stage), easy to learn and act (no long sentences or obscure dialogues) and their expressionistic nature immediately appeals to the young intellectual. As a teen seduced by modernism and breaking away from the shackles of the conventional for the first time, Sankara Pillai (along with Kavalam Narayana Panicker) was drama personified for yours truly.

This compact volume contains most of his famous one-act plays: there is also an introduction defining what a one-act play is, told through dramatic dialogue and epistolary conversation (this part alone is worth the price of the book). Reading these plays now, one can perhaps make the criticism that they are too similar, all formed from the same mould - but that is the benefit of hindsight. One must remember that at the time of their first inception, they were a breath of fresh air to the moribund Kerala stage.

Recommended for all theatre enthusiasts.