How could you write so little in one lifetime?” Rabindranath Tagore asks Willliam Shakespeare, in an enactment of an interesting hypothetical conversation between the two. 

The Sonnet had hosted a “William-Tagore Meet” in January where the compere, elocutionist Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee, began by enacting how a friendly banter between the two bards could have unfolded in heaven. 

The meet had other performers too, such as actors Biplab Dasgupta and Anasua Mazumdar who read out excerpts from their plays to highlight the shared nuances in the writings of the two literary stalwarts.

“Such sessions are important to get the current generation acquainted with Tagore, Shakespeare and some of their significant works,” said Dasgupta, before commencing his performance. 

Through adda, abritti (recitation) and abhinay (acting), it surfaced that both the bards stress on basic human emotions while dealing with the characters in their plays, manifesting ambition, greed, self-reflection and suspicion. Revenge is a common theme in both Tagore’s Rajarshi and Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice; racism is common to both Othello and Musalmanir Golpo. 

“We wanted to host something culturally enriching and so we thought of presenting this ‘William-Tagore Meet’. We tried to bring together stage artistes rather than film stars for this,” said general manager of The Sonnet Rajib Roy Choudhury. 

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