The Madras Players

The Madras Players are the oldest English-language theatre group in Chennai, India. The Madras Players have staged over 240 theatre productions over more than 50 years.

The Madras Players has its origins from Kilpauk General Hospital in the Psychiatric Ward, a theatre group exclusively for the mentally disabled, that mounted comedies and bedroom farces in the early 1950s. In 1955, the British Council first hosted Robert Newton's Othello which featured a mix of British and Indian actors. Shortly after, the Madras Dramatic Society closed down, and bequeathed most of their props and make-up equipment to The Madras Players founding members N. S. Yamuna and Gayathri (Grace) Krishnaswamy.

The group members in the early 1960s included Thambi Kadambavan, Ammu Mathew, Girish Karnad, and Stewart Melluish. In their early days, the group staged British works from Terence Rattigan, Shakespeare, Ibsen, Osborne with the help of directors like John Shepherd and Peter Coe and with constant support from the British Council. In the 1970s, they turned their attention to the newly available English translations of Indian-language plays, a venture which was well received by the audiences. Noted Kannada director Girish Karnad translated his plays to English for the group, who also performed translated works of playwrights like Mohan Rakesh, Vijay Tendulkar and Gurucharan Das.

Noted performers for the Players in this period include comedian Naushir Ratnagar, back-stage artist Mithran Devanesan and voice-artist P. C. Ramakrishna, who has been a member of the group since 1969.

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