In 2023, which marks the 125th birth anniversary of epoch-defining German playwright and practitioner, Bertolt Brecht, his words carry a sense of immediacy for us, so striking are the parallels between Nazi Germany and present-day India.

Over a long, momentous journey, the iconic playwright and director blended an imaginative approach to folk tradition and an inclusive concept of modernity to establish his unique, artistically exciting and enriching Naya Theatre, contemporary in outlook and form.

During his 15-year tenure as NSD director, Alkazi moulded it into one of India’s premier institutions, which produced a generation of remarkable actors and directors who had a seminal influence on India’s theatre scene.

Fo’s grotesque farces and satirical comedies on serious political themes ensured that his audience kept laughing even though he was laying bare the injustices and hypocrisies of the system.

Tanvir, who died in June 2009, would have been 93 today. In this piece, Javed Malick, an academic and known theatre scholar, remembers him as family.

Widely regarded as the best fiction writer in the language since Qurratulain Hyder, Husain’s main achievement was the perfection of a unique style of fiction writing, which departed from the mainstream tradition of realistic fiction.