REVIEWS . 1 r r i. i i i c mg on tlie transference or the message to the people. In the course of their activities, many questions which are difficult to resolve confront them. Can one afford to be indifferent to art? Should the emphasis be on art to the dilution of immediate effect? A few of them would even settle for 'pure5 art! Corruption in politics and administration, religious superstition and fanaticism, exploitation of the masses, unemployment, women's issues, workers' struggles - these are some of the subjects of street plays. They make use of folk and film songs with improvizations. In almost all the plays the actors directly address the audience. Plays have to be written to order as it were, sometimes within a few hours. The number of characters in a play might vary from show to show depending on the availability of actors. The most unlikely places form the venue for performances. Music is made with folk instruments and tins and cans, pots and pans. Common to all the hectic, disorganized activity which constitutes street theatre is the element of social protest. Mangal Saxena, who leads a street theatre group in Rajasthan, observed that the very act of performing on the streets w.as a revolutionary step. If one is familiar with the realities of small towns, one realizes how true this is. Many groups from such towns spoke about the personal risks and difficulties they face in their day-to-day activity. Tripurari Sharma pointed out in her . paper on the problems of street theatre that to work in street theatre groups is to dissociate yourself from your family and class. There are threats to be faced from landlords, the police and politicians. In such a set-up the need most people at the workshop felt was for a programme, a political direction to street theatre activity. Prasanna, with his experience of Samudaya in Karnataka, spoke on the media aspect of theatre, seeking for street theatre a role in the preservation of the democratic tradition. He felt street theatre could act as a parallel rebel movement to bring popular culture back into the possession of the people. Such an overt and conscious political purpose for street theatre is yet to be accepted fully. At present there is only protest, anger and satire, exuberant but largely without direction (exceptions are the Jan Natya Manch, Delhi, Samudaya, Karnataka and, at least in intent, the IPTA units). 68 April-June 1983