Oriya Literature - Drama

Drama

The traditional Oriya theatre is the folk opera, or Jatra, which flourishes in the rural areas of Odisha. Modern theatre is no longer commercially viable, but in the 1960 experimental theatre made a mark through the works of Manoranjan Das, who pioneered a new theatre movement with his brand of experimentalism. Bijay Mishra, Biswajit Das, Kartik Rath, Ramesh Prasad Panigrahi, Pramod Kumar Tripathy, Ratnakar Chaini, Ranjit Patnaik and Purna Chandra Mallick continued the tradition. Tripathy's contribution to the growth and development of the immensely popular and thought-provoking lok natakas is universally recognised and he is often called the Rousseau of lok natakas. Though there is no commercially viable modern Oriya theatre, there are amateur theatre groups and drama competitions. Operas, on the other hand, are commercially successful.