In his influential poem, “A Worker Reads History”, Bertolt Brecht had asked, “Over whom did the Caesars triumph?” William Shakespeare, the most popular interpreter of the Caesarean myth in literature, hardly cared about the plebeians and sided with the wealthy patricians. Kamaleshwar Mukherjee takes a cue from Shakespeare’s 1599 classic and then employs Marxist tools of reading history to dissect the rise and the fall of Julius Caesar in Rashbehari Shailushik’s latest production (picture, left).
Staged on May 11 at the Academy of Fine Arts, this 160-minute magnum opus marries classical opulence and contemporary relevance to pose a critique of fascist regimes at home and the world. Caesar became a means to dissect and analyse events that unfolded in pagan Rome but which also resonate with contemporary political reality.
Mukherjee, who writes and directs Caesar: 44 BC to 2024 AD, made no bones about Caesar’s role as a dictator, referring to him continuously not as a true representative of democracy but as the unlikely consul who wore the mask of people’s hero to unleash a totalitarian rule until he was assassinated. The Shakespearean plot was loosely followed, but its authenticity was challenged time and again. In fact, a hapless Shakespeare was repeatedly brought onto the stage in the guise of a glutton of a character named Natyakar (meaning ‘playwright’ in Bengali) and was made to respond to unsavoury queries posed by a woman with a double-horned headgear who replaced the soothsayer in Bard’s text. Mukherjee referred to the slaves’ rebellion led by Spartacus and brought in four working-class representatives who slithered onto the stage from their dwelling under the upstage rostrum — a symbol of Roman State power — to harp continuously on factors often overlooked.
Shailushik’s commendable pool of actors put their best foot forward to carry the magnificent production on their able shoulders. However, Sankar Debnath, a guest actor, lacked authority in the titular part and was easily superseded by Gautam Purakayastha and Arjun Dasgupta, playing Pompey and Crassus, respectively, in the scene that led to the formation of the First Triumvirate — the prototype of a nexus among the army, capital and State power. Arna Mukherjee impressed as Brutus. Nabanita Dutta’s Calpurnia and Lipika Chatterjee’s Cornelia seemed rounded. A dynamic scenography and robust choreography kept the momentum going. The stage, which utilised the vertical dimension, looked rather ornate but the props worked. The lights and the sound effects were just about adequate. The costume designer went for rampant hybridisation, dispensing the Roman toga in favour of stitched apparel of no character.
Power equations also tilted dangerously in Sharabhuj’s adaptation of Macbeth (picture, right). Tarun Pradhan, the director, presented a seamless synthesis of various indigenous performance traditions at his disposal. Recently staged at Madhusudan Mancha, this reworked version was driven by an ensemble cast comprising mostly spirited youngsters. Pradhan employed fewer words and more action to convey the narrative. Prudent textual editing and a visually-engaging scenography put this version among the most original Shakespeare adaptations in recent times. Pradhan himself stepped in as Dwari (the doorkeeper), commenting on the events unfolding in a dialect from the Kasai-Kansabati river basin.
Subhadeep Guha and Dhanapati Mondal added to the effect with a complementary soundscape and light design, respectively. Reinforcements came in the form of Saktipada Maity, a veteran drummer who doubled as Duncan’s bodyguard, and Chhau dancers from Purulia. Pradhan had no qualms about finding the fourth witch in Lady Macbeth (Sayanti Ghatak). When the weird sisters seduce Macbeth (Supriya Sur) before the killing of Duncan, Ghatak mingled with them, underlining the identification.