Abstract

Howard Barker’s Theatre of Catastrophe aims at displaying the contradictions and inconsistencies in the rationally social, political and conservative processes. This theatre which is characteristically irrational represents characters whose obstinacy makes them uncompromising individuals as encountering and struggling against ideologies in post-chaotic situations. These figures by using deception and sexuality reveal themselves as Dionysian seducers to open up the rifts within rational communities and to oppose power authorities. In this respect, Barker’s The Gaoler’s Ache and 12 Encounters with a Prodigy stage two child protagonists whom by their seduction and ingenuity attempt to make changes in the situations they have found themselves in. they are engaged in continuing battle against the external forces that mould their identities according to their hegemonic discourses. The researchers, thus, by using dissident reading and close reading, have explored the forms of dissidence and how these forms are going to be shaped by Dionysian impulse as an opposition to authority and power in Barker’s aforesaid plays.