Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

“Shakespeare catches up with times”

— Photo: M. Vedhan

Interaction: Parnab Mukherjee, an alternative theatre director, interacts with students at the Loyola College on Thursday before delivering a lecture on ‘Shakespeare Today’.

CHENNAI: Shakespeare is a playwright of the people, giving voice to marginal characters and finding resonance in people’s struggles today, alternative theatre director Parnab Mukherjee said on Thursday.

In town for the ‘Hamara Shakespeare’ festival, organised by the Prakriti Foundation, the Delhi-based media analyst and performance consultant talked about the relevance of Shakespeare in contemporary times to Loyola College students.

V.R. Devika of the Aseema Trust introduced Mr. Mukherjee as having directed more than 50 productions and having extensively worked on a range of human rights issues in the country.

Shakespeare’s plays have found resonance in some of these struggles. Though he was patronised by royalty, the playwright would pepper his plays with asides that were meant exclusively for the lower-class occupants of the front rows, he said. His plays are rich with the voices of the marginal and fringe characters. The language used in the plays was modern for his time. The most popular cinema and theatre of any time has not contributed as much to the language of contemporary common use as Shakespeare, he said. His reworking of history — ignoring documented history and choosing such notions of people’s history as suited him — also made him people-centric.

Interacting with students after the lecture, Mr. Mukherjee pointed out that school and college syllabi had often selected the plays that were royalty-centred, giving a skewered view of his body of work. “His poetry can still be quoted for Valentine’s day,” he quipped. Shakespeare-inspired plays would be performed as part of the ‘Hamara Shakespeare’ festival at the Museum Theatre, Egmore, on Friday and Saturday. Mr. Mukherjee’s group ‘Best of Kolkata Campus’ performed on Thursday evening.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Life, an unending education: Illayaraja
Madavan is brand ambassador for Round Table project
Digital elocution competition
Locomotive overhauled
Interim consultants
Third open air prison coming up in Sivaganga district
Safety orientation programme
“Farm marketing Act must be amended”
Online quiz on ‘Wetlands’
“Shakespeare catches up with times”
Make museums accessible to the disabled: experts
Four runaway children rescued
Power shutdown tomorrow
Fewer accidents in 2007, says Additional Commissioner of Police
17 firms compete for Kodungaiyur project
Aavin milk cards’ sale from tomorrow
Cultural meet
More commuter amenities proposed at MRTS stations
Hike fuels last-minute rush to bunks

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu