Abstract
In this thesis I give a description of how globalisation is experienced, and related to, from below. I present a group of theatre activists from the troupe Nandikar, and their engagement with Kolkata (Calcutta, India) and a World of Theatre. The theatre of Nandikar consists of a set of practises that originated from various parts of the world; hence globalisation becomes an important framework for interpretation. I follow Nandikar from their office and rehearsal room in North Kolkata to the stage in Central Kolkata. Through this journey I mainly investigate their rehearsal practises, the city where they live and their performances. Concerning their rehearsals, I pay attention to how they utilise performative practises, texts and theories that can be seen as part of a World of Theatre that they share with other theatre groups world wide. Their imagination of being part of this theatrescape is seen as central to their identity. Kolkata is discussed in order to contextualise the group in space and time. The urban site of Kolkata, with an emphasis on its bazaars, is seen as a conceptual map or image of globalisation as hybridisation. Entering the stage with Nandikar makes it possible to approach their way of disclosing their engagement with a globalised world. It is important to show how globalisation is a topic in various ways in the four plays presented, at the same timer as the performances may be seen as entering flows of globalisation themselves. The activists understand these practises as an engagement with some global flows of performative traditions and theatre plays. As a consequence, it has been possible to present a grounded approach to an urban place with people who are channelling the various streams of globalisation. This is a study of globalisation as it is experienced and lived out. Their position is described as constituting an alternative modernity, following a definition of modernity as a site-based attitude of questioning the present. Through out the thesis I argue for an understanding of globalisation as constituted by flows of information and practises, others than those connected to economy. Even as they see aspects of globalisation as a threat, they also see it as a potential. I conclude in my study that Nandikar activists are both subjected to globalisation, at the same time as they are agents of globalisation. This duality is central in my findings.