Student theatre collectives in the city have a new addition — Ardere, a fiery group comprising MA English first-year students of Loreto College, who put up their first public production at the ICCR on May 30. With their choice to enact Shakespeare’s Othello for their maiden performance, the group shows a lot of promise, but what is perhaps most heartening to see is their dedication and passion for the craft, replete with a seriousness of purpose that goes much beyond their years. Their adaptation of Othello, by no means perfect, was nevertheless marked by a raw emotional energy.
This first show, held in association with and sponsored by Rising Asia Foundation, was instrumental in proving two things: First, that student-led initiatives, when fuelled by genuine passion and guided by academic rigour, can create art that is both engaging and thought-provoking, even if the source text is 400 years old; and second, that Shakespeare continues to offer fertile ground for reinterpretation, even for young performers navigating their first foray into full-scale production.
The word ‘ardere’ is Latin for the phrase ‘to burn’ — a fitting name for a group that comprises such bright minds. These young theatre-makers are clearly lit up by love for literature from within, as was evident in the great pains they have taken to adapt the original tragedy into an amalgamation of world theatre of sorts, instead of strictly Shakespearean. Even the most rigid scholar of the Bard would sit up and take note of the subtle touches of difference the Ardere girls have added to their version of Othello. Seamlessly enough, they integrate literary influences and references from across eras, spaces, and popular mythologies to make their rendition more impactful, and more importantly, a little farther apart from what has been done in theatre circles already.
Why they are different
Three separate segments especially piqued my interest. The first of this was a scene celebrating Othello’s return to Cyprus after his wedding, staged as a feast clearly inspired by Michelangelo’s The Last Supper. Othello (Somoshree Palit), Desdemona (Srijani Ganguly), and Emilia (Shuchismita Das) enter wearing flower wreaths, possibly invoking the cult of Dionysus or Bacchus, Gods of wine, theatre, and ecstatic ritual in Greek and Roman mythology respectively. In classical antiquity, such wreaths were worn during festivals and dramatic performances, and awarded to victors in artistic competitions — symbols of both celebration and creative triumph. The contrast is sharp here: Iago (Sayantika Halder) wears no wreath, and as the scene unfolds, Othello takes his place at the centre of the table (mirroring the seated figure of Christ in The Last Supper), while Iago assumes Judas’s place. To anyone familiar with the references, this scene not only draws from Christian iconography but also intertwines it with ancient Greek motifs, making the symbolism of the text and its characters that much more powerful.
The second section that merits mention is when Othello falls into a seizure-like trance after Iago successfully works his ‘medicine’ on him — he becomes convinced Desdemona is committing adultery with Cassio (Megha Hossain) and succumbs to a sudden epileptic fit. What the Ardere girls have done with this scene is make it distinctly psychological. They bring in the Fates and the Furies of the Ancient Greek myths, wearing masks and moving in a circle around the convulsing Othello on the ground, pointing and laughing at his condition.
The Fates, who had also been cleverly introduced in the play before, wearing the same masks and spinning the same red spool of yarn, quite literally pull the strings of Othello’s unraveling mind, turning his torment into a performance, as it were, of inevitability. The Furies, agents of vengeance in the Greek myths, seem to personify his guilt and rage, haunting him before the final act is even set in motion. There is an almost unnerving merging of the psychological drama of Shakespeare’s text with Greek mythic archetypes in this scene, laudably a clever piece of direction that integrates the titular character’s personal downfall with cosmic design.
The third instance is by far the best piece of cross-referencing in the production, when a direct parallel is drawn between Othello’s murder of Desdemona with the murder of Porphyria by her lover in Robert Browning’s Porphyria’s Lover. More specifically, in what has probably never been done before in Othello adaptations, the production has Othello ultimately strangling Desdemona with her own hair. Ganguly’s hair nearly reaches her ankles, and has been effectively used for maximum dramatic effect. It is to be noted that part of the monologue Othello delivers before he kills his wife is not dissimilar to the narration of the mad lover of Porphyria, specifically where Othello says: “Be thus when thou art dead and I will kill thee / And love thee after / So sweet was ne’er so fatal”, mirrored by “That moment she was mine, mine, fair, / Perfectly pure and good”, that Browning’s narrator says. The parallels of the two women being unfaithful, of belonging to any entity other than the men who claim they love them, and of being punished in the name of love, hit you immediately, and the scene is distinctly unsettling.
In making their Othello parallel Browning’s poem, Ardere lends a tenderness to the scene: The use of Desdemona’s hair as the instrument of her death, echoing the motif in Porphyria, adds a macabre gentility to the final act, as if the very symbol of femininity and beauty becomes the noose that takes away life.
Ability to think critically
What Ardere has done, very effectively, is prove that student theatre can still be a site of experimentation. Their production is as much a tribute to Shakespeare as it is a conversation with other texts and traditions, stitched together with a sense of theatricality that is almost audacious. Mention must also be made of the beautiful costumes, effective soundtrack, and clever use of backgrounds set up via a projector to maximise the effect of the play. The overall impression is rather commendable, and it speaks to the group’s ability to think critically not just about what they’re performing, but how they’re presenting it.
“We first enacted this play in January, in college, and we received a standing ovation for it. That’s when Rising Asia offered to take it up and sponsor a public performance. This is our first public showcase,” said Somoshree, joined by her team: Srijani (who was also the music director of the production), Shuchismita (who additionally handled lights), Sayantika (also looked after finances), Megha, Rajyashree Chowdhury (Brabantio), Shubhangi Basu (Roderigo), Shruti Dan (Lodovico), Aditi Mitra (Montano), Anushka Das (the Duke), Akashleena Dastidar, Sushmita Saha, and Anisha Mondal (the three Fates), Prakriti Basu and Aritri Das from the lights and music teams, along with Smita Chowdhury, Sayanika Ghosh (backstage), Priyangsu Sengupta, Mainak Sarkar (floor management), Melanie Alexander (registration), and Pintu Charan Manna (make-up).
“We came up with some 30 names for our group, but we liked none, and then we finally settled on Ardere, because all of us were burning with a passion for the theatre! And we previously had a paper called Text and Performance, for which we had to read a lot about theatre across the world. That’s where we got the idea of bringing together various aspects of drama into a single play. We purposely wanted to experiment with the play because we believe enacting drama is very much a part of studying literature. We wanted to show Shakespeare in a new light while keeping the original story the same, and come up with something that has not been done before,” said the group members.
Julie Banerjee Mehta, founding trustee of the Rising Asia Circle, was only too happy to introduce the group — her students at Loreto College — to theatre-goers of the city.
“Each year that I have taught the Master’s English students in Loreto College, I have felt privileged. The passion and engagement in theatre and literature have been impactful. When Ardere expressed their burning desire to perform Othello, I was thrilled that we at Rising Asia Foundation could help and support them financially. I feel our aim at Rising Asia Foundation is to aid and encourage a platform for new talent, and to encourage a new light to burn in English language theatre in this city, which has always loved Shakespeare. On their debut performance, I wanted Ardere to discover the magic of the stage and the joy of connecting with an audience. And what better way to do this than Shakespeare, that canny rockstar of human psychology?!” she said, brimming over with pride for her students after the show.
Harish Mehta, fellow founding trustee, added, “We’re delighted to support young theatre groups, to get them under the stage limelight, hoping the exposure will help them grow as actors. We also hoped we’d help discover new talent, which we did in Ardere.”