This paper investigates how gendered spaces shape female agency in contemporary South Asian English-language theatre. Playwrights such as Mahesh Dattani (Tara, Bravely Fought the Queen), Manjula Padmanabhan (Harvest), and Poile Sengupta (Mangalam) depict women negotiating domestic, social, and tokenized spaces constrained by patriarchal power. Drawing on feminist literary criticism and spatial theory, the study examines recurring themes of confinement, silence, commodification, and agency. Findings reveal that home and intimate spaces function both as sites of oppression and arenas for resistance, highlighting women’s strategies of subversion and identity reinvention. The plays problematize the binary of confinement and liberation, demonstrating that even restrictive spaces can foster rebellion. Overall, South Asian English drama contributes significantly to feminist and postcolonial discourse, offering critical insights into women’s lived experiences and imaginative forms of resistance.
Taj et al. (2024) studied this question.