Performing Resistance: Gender, Radicalism, and the Politics of Theatre in London and Calcutta, 1930–1950

Abstract

Performance cultures in South Asia and the United Kingdom have long functioned as critical sites
where colonialism, postcolonial nationalism, and caste and gender hierarchies intersect. Actresses in
London and Calcutta between 1920-50, particularly Vera Holme, Kitty Marion, Reba Roy, and Tripti
Mitra, emerged not just as performers but as political actors, using theatre to challenge state and
societal constraints on gender and creative labor.
This paper situates performative radicalism within the broader epistemic legacies of colonial rule and
postcolonial nation-building, examining how statist formations shaped both the stage and the study
of performance. The expansion of theatrical activism in London and Calcutta coincided with the
gradual collapse of rigid gendered spaces, resulting in tensions between cultural nationalism, state
surveillance, and the role of female performers in political resistance. The radical labor of these
actresses complicates our understanding of how performance functioned as both an instrument of
subversion and a site of exclusion.
Drawing on postcolonial feminist theories and decolonial methodologies this study extends beyond
colonial-era theatre to interrogate the continuities of imperialism in postcolonial performance
cultures. Specifically, it examines the gendered negotiations of performance in political theatre
during the 1950s. By foregrounding the experiences of women in socially engaged theatre, I argue
that radicalism through performance techniques serves as a lens to analyze performance traditions
negotiate systemic power, shaping both artistic practice and socio-cultural discourse. In doing so,
this paper contributes to the panel’s broader inquiry into how performance cultures both reveal and
resist the structures of empire