A take on Macbeth: So foul and fair...
The final year NSD students staged William Shakespeare’s Macbeth at their Bahumukh space in New Delhi on Tuesday. It was directed by Bangladeshi Jamil Syed Ahmed, a 1978 NSD graduate who then obtained a degree in Theatre Studies in Warwick (UK) and is currently professor at the department of theatre and music, University of Dhaka, where he also completed his Ph.D. in Indigenous Theatrical Performance. His theatrically-rich Behular Bhashan was presented at a recent Bharat Rang Mahotsav organised annually by the NSD. It is based on a myth popular in Bihar where Behula-like Sati Savitri wants her dead husband restored to life. Behula in Ahmed’s play is the victim of men’s lust all along her journey down the Ganga, carrying her husband’s body, and she refutes her prayers and refuses the restoration of her husband’s life. The story of Mansa, the snake goddess, is intertwined in the myth. It is a snake that bit Behula’s husband and his six brothers to punish the father who refused to worship Mansa.
Macbeth is one of the Bard’s greatest plays and the text is familiar to many Indians. Therefore, to have the words made unintelligible by the actors was an unforgivable flaw in the production. The main characters were the primary culprits. Not only did Macbeth speak in a language that merely sounded like Hindi but he also spoke in fast forward. Lady Macbeth was so concerned about clarity that her mouth formed an open “O” most of the time; she spoke Hindi in English. With the exception of Rohit Chaudhary as Banquo in a major role and Anjalika Kapur and Faiz Mohammad in cameos, there was almost nobody whose speech could be deciphered.
The pity of it is that the actors did not know what they were saying and why. Sukanto Roy (Macbeth) was excellent when he was engaged in physical turns; the scene between him and Banquo’s ghost was brilliantly choreographed and well performed by the two actors. Most of the actors did well in movement scenes, even the three witches who were beautifully dressed as was the entire cast, and credit for which goes to the costume designer Dolly Alhuwalia Tewari. Even though they were given 15 minutes as a ritualistic prelude to the play after which they tried to mingle with the audience and were on stage almost through the performance, the three witches failed to impress. They lacked the intensity and the urgent power bestowed on them in the text.
The design of the play was exemplary. The mirrors in the three alcoves created surreal images. In the scalped heads, mounted on rods deployed differently in scenes, finally depicting the moving Burnham forest with twigs stuck in the scalps, the director had a good idea that did not quite work. The production relied on two Hindi translations: One by Harivansh Rai Bachchan and the other by Raghuvir Sahay, both of who must be turning in their graves.
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