SOURCE: Chatterjee, Sudipto. “Mise-En-(Colonial-)Scène: The Theatre of the Bengal Renaissance.” In Imperialism and Theatre: Essays on World Theatre, Drama, and Performance, edited by J. Ellen Gainor, pp. 19-37. London: Routledge, 1995.

In the following essay, Chatterjee discusses Dutt's contributions to Bengali theater.

You see before you, as it were on a stage, two actors, the Anglo-Saxon and the Hindu—and believe me, it is a sublime, a solemn, a grand, a wondrous Drama they are destined to act.

Michael Madhusūdan Dutta¹

On October 6, 1835 (some historians claim the year to be 1833 or even 1831), Nabin Candra Basu, a Calcutta-based Bengali bhadra lok² or bābu³ of a high order, organized the various spaces available in his mansion. A play based on the popular eighteenth-century Bengali poem Vidyā Sundar by the poet Bhārat Candra (1712-60) was staged on that evening. Performed before a mixed audience of more...