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PHOTOS: R. SHIVAJI RAO and K.V. SRINIVASAN

VIGNETTES OF SHAKESPEARE Scenes from the play – “Thanimaiyil Shakespeare”

Prakriti Foundation presented its Hamara Shakespeare Festival 2008 at the Museum Theatre from February 14. Three plays were staged on three successive evenings.

“Hamletmachine - images of Shakespeare-in-us” was an intense production rooted in the present and a State’s anguish. It singed the heart of the audience. The play was staged by Best of Kolkata Campus, a loosely formed collective of individuals who believe “theatre is important as an independent tool of dissent outside the ambit of party politics.”

Directed by Parnab Mukherjee, it shook those thousands of miles away from Manipur out of their “all’s right with the world” complacency. It made them squirm at a “pastoral idyll” desecrated by violence and blood and ridden over by authority in hob-nailed boots. The play inspired by snapshots begins with powerful visuals of the State’s problems with insurgency and authoritarianism. Without is the curfew and within the actors rehearse. Hamlet tries to realise his identity and make sense of what he sees around him. And the drama is forged. Like this one is excitingly through the use of interesting stage props- masks, life size puppets, mannequins, ladders that bridge spaces, objects in disarray. Lights, visuals and voices weave the narrative and English, Bengali and Assamese are fused seamlessly. Thanks to the brilliant conceptualisation and skilful use of Heiner Muller’s text by the director and the impassioned portrayal , “something is rotten in the State of Denmark” and elsewhere came through. The director could have been invited to say a few words or to interact with the audience. But why the jaw breaking title that needs an author’s footnote?

Shakespeare and She

If the Best of Kolkata Campus managed to make Shakespeare their very own and in most part the viewers’ as well, one was chary of staking any such claim on “Thanimaiyil Shakespeare”. The Tamil play scripted and directed by V. Arumugham (who has distinguished himself with a number of fine productions) was put up by the Department of Performing Arts, Pondicherry University. Here Shakespeare (Arumugham) is surrounded by his creations - Hamlet, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth and Othello. They come to life and demand the writer give them attention. The playwright lets them fashion their own destinies and give voice to the impulses that drive them. One by one they do so. The result was a near charade in which the characters indulge in “a lot of sound and fury”. Except for a quite convincing Lady Macbeth (Arogya Mary Stella), the others seemed clueless about how to approach such a daunting task. Despite the words they spouted (the translation did not capture the majesty of the original), none of the psychological shades and the finely nuanced emotions that distinguish each tormented soul came through. They raved and ranted and seemed to be of a uniformly sanguinary disposition. Lines too could not be heard. Shakespeare can sting like nettle if not grasped properly. This production was neither hamara nor tumhara. The final link up to war and its evils to bring contemporary relevance seems to have become almost mandatory in most Tamil parallel plays, as also the visuals.

“Shakespeare and She” which put together the stories of four women (playwright/director: Ramu Ramanathan) was finely conceptualised and performed. It was funny, clever, witty and poignant. There was song, music and dance and wave upon wave of words and images. Though the Bard is a visual and verbal presence and the key who sets off the actions, memories and emotions, it is a play that celebrates Mumbai, the teeming metropolis “equal to 16th century London” and the faceless numbers which inhabit it . But the play’s focus is “she”, the tough lives women lead trying to overcome innumerable obstacles in urban India. It tells the story of Insomnia and Aisha and their struggle against odds. Changing moods with the greatest facility and getting every word and syllable right in rush upon rush of perfectly rehearsed dialogue, the four female actors made the play full of vitality and fun to watch. But the words sometimes became too many and the unceasing, unvarying flow swamped the viewer. A shade of glibness at times marred the performances and one had to grope one’s way through the maze of images and words.

Ahlam Khan (Insomnia) dazzled the audience with the range of talent in her histrionic arsenal - she could continually dip into it and come out a winner. The other three - Medha, Pooja Asher and Akshata Sawant – gave excellent support though here and there Medha was a shade too pert. The song and dance lifted up the work that was premiered at the Hamara Shakespeare Festival.

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