Manal Magudi, translated as the rhythm of the land, is a rural experimental theatre group from Kaṟisial Kadu (the area around Tuticorin district in southern Tamil Nadu, India). Drawing its poetics from local rituals and folk genres, the theatre group becomes an archive of the Kaṟisial folklore. Although the idiom that S. Murugabhoopathi, the director of the group, formulates has elements of myth and mysticism, a constant and consistent engagement with history and politics is integral to the plays. The study documents one of the plays of Manal Magudi as a performance text. It further explores the plays as south Indian tragedy in the light of Nietzsche’s and Soyinka’s conception of tragedy.

The talk will discuss the documentation of the play as a performance text. Performance text, a descriptive and interpretative framework, proposed by Bharucha, unlike a critique, is an extension of the rehearsal process; it is a post-production exploration of the basic impulses of the production. The performance text is a personal reading of the play. Despite my long association with the group, the reading is subjective and doesn’t claim verisimilitude. It is, as Bharucha says, the creation by a spectator with a partial or even flawed vision. The talk will focus on the methodology employed - partial vision, which acknowledges the mediating subject and the immediacies of the historical moment that shapes viewing.