Ratan Thiyam, the legendary Indian playwright and theatre director who passed away earlier this week, was more than just a master craftsman of the stage; he was a profound philosopher who consistently challenged the prevailing notions of modernity in theatre and, by extension, in human existence. Born in Imphal, Manipur, in 1948, Thiyam emerged from a region steeped in rich martial, ritualistic, and storytelling traditions. His journey, from studying at the National School of Drama in Delhi to returning to his roots to establish the Chorus Repertory Theatre in 1976, was a deliberate act of questioning the western-centric theatrical paradigms that often dominated the discourse of “modern” theatre. This stance places him among a global cohort of visionary theatre makers, including Japan’s Yukio Ninagawa, Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka, and his own great Indian contemporaries, Neelam Mansingh Chaudhuri and Heisnam Kanhailal, who similarly interrogated modernity by drawing deeply from their indigenous cultural wellsprings.

I had the great opportunity to see many of his productions over the years, and much like many other theatre makers of my generation, his work was always the gold standard for how far the limits of one’s art could be pushed and how interrogatively beautiful one’s questions to oneself and one’s society could be. Thiyam’s critique of modernity was not a rejection of progress outright, but rather a nuanced interrogation of its often-unseen costs: The erosion of cultural identity, the spiritual vacuum created by material pursuits, and the disconnect from nature and ancestral wisdom. He believed that true modernity lay not in blind imitation of western forms, but in a deep engagement with one’s cultural heritage, allowing it to inform and enrich contemporary expression. This philosophy became the cornerstone of........

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