Theatre & War

Nandita Dinesh places Kipling’s ‘six honest serving-men’ (who what when where why how) in productive conversation with her own experiences in conflict zones across the world to offer a theoretical and practical reflection on making theatre in times of war. This timely and important book weaves together Dinesh’s personal narrative with the public story of modern conflict illustrating as it does the importance of theatre as a force for ethical deliberation and social justice. In it Dinesh asks how theatre might intervene in times and places of conflict and how we might reflect on such interventions. In pursuit of answers Theatre and War adopts the methods of auto-ethnography positioning the theatrical practitioner at the heart of conflict zones in northern Uganda Guatemala Northern Ireland Mexico Rwanda Kenya Nagaland and Kashmir. No longer a detached observer the researcher and practitioner has to be able to meld theory with practice; to speak to ‘doing’ without undervaluing the importance of ‘thinking about doing’.