Macbeth Mirror by William Shakespeare
[ratings]
The Play
Macbeth is a play about evil that emanates from the dark power whose agents are the three weird sisters. The present interpretation does not visualize Macbeth externally as a historical record; but rather as a re- creation of the event as mirrored in the minds of the weird sisters. It is seen as a phenomenon transcending time and space: the incantations and rituals of the dark aspect of the Tantric cult used throughout the presentation represent this pervasive evil embodied in Shakespeare’s play. Evil is here invoked by, and its outcome experienced by, the three weird sisters. To concentrate on this emergence of evil, the original text has been edited so as to focus on the two central victims of the historical event who succumb to this evil due to their lust for power.
The text followed is the only Bengali translation which is faithful both to the rich poetry and the metric structure of Shakespeare’s original text, and runs in harmony with the Sanskrit incantations used in the production.
Director’s Note
In Hinduism, goddess Kali has two different powers; one positive and the other negative. Generally we worship the positive power. But some people worship the negative power to practice hypnotism, basikaran, maron etc. They start wearing all sorts of things in their hands, waist, neck etc. In our production three women worship the negative power of Goddess Kali. They start worshiping the negative power. As a result they turn into witches. We believe that witches exist only in the mind. Therefore in our production all the characters like Macbeth, Banquo, Lady Macbeth etc. continuously switch between witches and the original character. In this production three actresses perform all the characters.
Director
Santanu Das took the Diploma in Dramatics from National School of Drama, New Delhi. Presently he is working at Rabindra Bharati University as Assistant Professor in the Department of Drama. He started his career as director & designer in 1990 with the play Atha Dar Pal Katha. He has directed Power of Darkness, Ebom Indrajit, Romeo Jeannette, Raisin in the Sun, Manushi, Oedipus Turranus, Ghare Baire, and many more. In 2015 he jointly directed a production named ‘Crossing’ with Aude Marehsal, at Mondvil, France. He has presented papers at Rhodes University, South Africa & Elsinore Conference 2016, at Helsingor, Denmark. Recently his production Macbeth Mirror was invited to the Summer Shakespeare Festival, Ostrava, Czech Republic, and 21 st Gdansk International Shakespeare Festival, Gdansk, Poland.
Translator
Prof. Dutt was awarded D.Lit. in Drama for his pioneering multi-disciplinary work on the extra-rational roots of the Tragic Experience. He has written and directed children’s plays, translated and produced Shakespeare in Bengali, and also directed Tagore plays as well as improvised play-texts. In the international arena, he has collaborated with Gunter Grass, Hansgunther Heyme and Peter von Becker. He has also been invited to Italy and Poland, to deliver lectures.
The Group
Kalyani Kalamandalam was established in 1995 and in the last twenty-two years the group has produced fourteen major productions. Some of its previous productions are Ebong Indrajit, Romeo Jeannette, Manushi, Oedipus Turranus, Ghare Baire, Gollachut and Shakespeare’s Macbeth as ‘Macbeth Mirror’ directed by Sri Santanu Das. It has performed in countries like France, Poland, Czech Republic, Nepal and Bangladesh.
Cast & Credits
Actors Monalisa Chatterjee, Ananya Das, Jayeeta Das
Drums Chakra Pani Dev, Shovan Chakraborty, Prasenjit Halder
Set & Costume Santanu Das
Asst. Set Dipankar Halder
Asst. Costume Shipra Dey
Lettering Neelavo Chottpadhyay
Choreographer Deb Kumar Paul
Music Subhadeep Guha
Lights Arnab Kumar Ray
Properties Prasenjit Halder & Jayeeta Das
Subtitle Controller Anirban De
Production Manager Mahabub Biswas / Haradhan Ankureh
Playwright William Shakespeare
Translator Dattatreya Dutt
Design & Direction Santanu Das