If you have ever watched Maya Krishna Rao perform, you know how disorienting it is. She is alone on stage. There are no sets. Sometimes no costume to speak of. Sometimes barely a chair. And yet somehow, an entire world keeps building and collapsing around her. You laugh. Then you flinch. Then you laugh again. Then your chest hurts.
That is what an evening with Maya looks like.
Who is Maya Krishna Rao?
Maya Krishna Rao is a solo theatre artist, Kathakali-trained performer, writer, teacher, and political activist based in Delhi. She has been performing since the late 1970s and is one of India’s most original makers of solo performance. Her work blends classical Kathakali, contemporary movement, stand-up comedy, autobiographical storytelling, and explicit political protest.
She has performed Khol Do, Lady Macbeth, Walk, Ravanama, Quality Street, Dipti Mehta and the Question of Lipstick, and many other solo and ensemble works.
Her training
Maya trained in Kathakali under Guru Krishnan Kutty and Guru Govindan Kutty in Kerala and Delhi over a period of nearly two decades. She also worked closely with the International Centre for Kathakali. She earned a PhD in Theatre Arts from the University of Leeds. That combination, deep classical training plus academic rigour plus an utterly contemporary sensibility, sits at the heart of her style.
What makes her work different
Three things, mainly.
She uses Kathakali like a language, not like a costume. Most contemporary performers borrow a posture or a mudra. Maya thinks in Kathakali. Then she breaks the form open to talk about contemporary life. A traditional Ravana piece becomes a meditation on rage. A Lady Macbeth piece becomes a meditation on power and complicity. A street protest becomes choreography.
She talks to the audience. Not in the awkward fourth-wall way. She really talks to them. She asks questions. She waits. She tells jokes that land. She lets silences land. She does not perform at the room. She performs with the room.
She is politically present without preaching. Her piece Walk, made in response to the Delhi gang rape of 2012, is a fierce, controlled, beautifully written commentary on women in public space. Quality Street is a sharp piece on caste and class. The work is unapologetically activist, but the craft is always strong enough to carry the politics.
Famous works
- Khol Do: based on Saadat Hasan Manto’s chilling Partition story, performed solo with extraordinary restraint.
- Walk: a poetic and angry piece on women’s freedom of movement, sparked by the 2012 Delhi gang rape.
- Ravanama: a Kathakali-based meditation on Ravana’s mind.
- Lady Macbeth: Shakespeare’s character reimagined through Kathakali and contemporary movement.
- Quality Street: a darkly funny piece on class, taste, and labour in Indian homes.
- Dipti Mehta and the Question of Lipstick: a sharp social comedy.
Why solo work?
Maya has spoken in interviews about why she gravitated to solo performance. Solo lets a writer-performer move fast. You can write something in the morning and perform it in the evening. You can respond to a news story before it goes stale. You can travel light and play in unusual venues: cafes, bookstores, university quadrangles, protest sites. You can keep your overheads honest and your work nimble. In a country where independent theatre survival is genuinely hard, solo is a form of resilience.
Her teaching
Maya has taught performance at the National School of Drama, Shiv Nadar University, Ashoka University, Jamia Millia Islamia, and many other institutions. Her workshops on Kathakali fundamentals for non-dancers, on writing-for-performance, and on activist performance are widely sought after. Many young contemporary Indian performers credit a Maya Krishna Rao workshop with cracking open a sense of what was possible.
Activism beyond the stage
Maya has been a visible voice in Indian civil society on issues including women’s safety, free speech, caste, and academic freedom. In 2015, she returned her Sangeet Natak Akademi Award as part of the writers and artists protest against attacks on free expression in India. She continues to be politically engaged through both her performance work and her public writing.
Why she matters in 2026
Indian theatre tends to lionise grand productions, ensemble repertories, and major directors. Maya Krishna Rao is a reminder that one person, with a clear voice, deep training, and a willingness to listen to their own time, can build an equally important body of work. She is also a reminder that solo performance is not a smaller form than ensemble theatre. It is simply a different muscle, and few in India have built it like she has.
For a young performer trying to figure out how to make work in India without a giant institution behind them, Maya’s career is one of the most useful maps you can study.
How to see her perform
Maya regularly performs in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata, and at university festivals across India. She also tours internationally to performance festivals in the US, UK, Germany, and Australia. Schedules and updates are posted through her own channels and the Sangeet Natak Akademi network.
The short version
Maya Krishna Rao took an ancient form, a sharp pen, a stubborn political conscience, and a willingness to stand alone on a stage. She built one of the most distinctive bodies of solo theatre in Indian history. If you ever get a chance to see her live, do not skip it. Bring a friend who has never seen serious theatre before. They will leave changed.
To go further, read about Kathakali, Kerala’s legendary dance drama, and our piece on Badal Sircar, who freed Indian theatre from the proscenium stage.