^{In this consumerist and individualistic family-oriented society, one does not want to take responsibility for what is happening around oneself. It is more likely one will find a way to escape rather than get involved in the experience. In this sense, theatre-going would be to some one an escape, rather than an involvement in the theatrical experience. The assumption that this individual is a self-critical one who is ready to change oneself through something like a piece of art is, therefore, problematic. As reason studies have shown, what we can see is that the audience has greater authority in determining the meaning of the play. This fact is very important to Dhananjaya’s plays, which are critical and question the ego of contemporary man, its political foundation and existence. The Theatre Against the Audience production will not assume that the audience reads the characters as representative of themselves. As political human beings, the audience would be more inclined to protect their ego from the experience, if it is subject to attack. Theatre Against the Audience tries to minimize or block the way out and make it difficult for the audience to take the escape route. The experience of the performance touches the emotional side of the audience rather than the intellectual or the rational side, and leaves the audience shocked. An audience cannot hide its emotional responses as much as it can its intellectual. After the experience is finished and the actors have left the stage, the play is still on until the audience leaves:the feelings resonating among the audience should be witnessed when the lights come on. These visible attitudes of the audience are regarded as a part of the play itself. Therefore, at least two audience members are needed for a Theatre Against the Audience performance.}
 

 ^{It is in the way the audience is confronted with the experience that they feel as though the play has been made against them. The audience is left unprotected and vulnerable in the theatrical environment created by the Theatre Against the Audience.}

When a play is against its audience, the audience will be in shocked, extremely active and closer to finding the truth, the reality. Theatre Against the Audience introduces a conflict between the play and the audience and the conflict between the charactors become less important. The impact of such an approach is extremly powerful.The audiences are made to think not what has happened to the charactors- as in the conventional manner- but what happened to me?

Style

Dhananjaya’s plays are neither absurd nor naturalistic, but have been influenced by a variety of genres including Naturalism and Absurdism. Dialogue is mainly written to create images in the audience’s mind; his writings are more concerned with the spectator’s imaginary world, than mere verbal communication.

“Our business is not what is happening on the stage, rather what is happening in the spectators' mind where one creates one's own play" - Dhananjaya. 

^{A good example of this is The Story of the Last Bus. The set has only one wooden box and no other props. The actor' performance and physicality combine with the visual images and descriptive language to create a whole imaginary world for the spectators to see the stories in their mind. The actors often maintain direct, physical contact with the audience. The actor spectator- relationship is very intimate. For Dhananjaya, theatre is something that should be performed with a small gathering of people. As silences, pauses and whispering etc are often used in his plays, the theatrical environment needs to be secluded and not disturbed by the outer world unless it has something to do with the outer world. Because of the intimate contact between his plays and the audience,  theatre life gets easily mixed up with  real life: the audience oscillates between the theatrical illusion and the real life which makes the audience question what is truly real.}

 

^{-This page is subject to expansion with new insights emerging from further experimentation and study.}