Lady Macbeth, from Shakespeare’s masterpiece Macbeth has fascinated both playwrights as well as audiences through time. And, understandably so. Lady Macbeth has a complexity to her that invites scrutiny and interpretation. I would argue that it is with a double-edged sword that Shakespeare wrote Lady Macbeth’s character. He imbued her with the power to decisively change a political scenario, made her ambitious, thirsty for power and brave too, but was simultaneously quick to make sure there would be cataclysmic consequences for awarding her with such agency. For instance, if we saw her hungry for power, admirably ambitious and even witnessed her ability to mastermind a coup, we also saw her pay for it dearly at the end of the play when she is shown as losing her mind and subsequently, her life itself.
Since Macbeth, either through re-stagings of Macbeth itself or in other plays, Lady Macbeth-esque characters have recurred on stage periodically. Therefore, it was hardly surprising when the ghost of Lady Macbeth lingered on stage during the staging of Adirvalai Bimbangal , a Tamil period drama brought to stage by Karpanai Kudirai, a group of theatre enthusiasts from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
Directed by Vedarun Rajkumar, the play, set in 12th century India, told the story of two neighbouring kingdoms - Swarnapuri and Vasanthapuri. As the play opens, we meet Shantakumaran, the prospective heir of Swarnapuri reluctant to take the throne because he is still reeling from the trauma of losing his wife, Ranjini. Seizing this opportunity, his brother, Agniputran is egged by his wife Meghana to usurp the throne and send Shantakumaran away. Through Agniputran, Meghana conspires to rule not just Swarnapuri but Vasanthapuri too.
It is in Meghana, therefore, that we see the shadow of Lady Macbeth. Smitten by her and falling into the trap she so deviously sets up, Agniputran and even Vasudevan, the ruler of Vasanthapuri, follow her orders religiously. Things go horribly wrong, of course, and we see the blame squarely falling on Meghana’s shoulders. At this juncture, it is almost as if Meghana comes face to face with Lady Macbeth, her prototype. But then, Rajkumar, instead of closing the play there, asks us to think before we accuse Meghana.
We are invited to see beyond what meets the eye in the story and then asked if we would still blame Meghana for everything. We are given a back story to Meghana, one that not only contextualises her actions but also endears her towards us.
We see her not just as a scheming stereotype but as a human imbued with more than one shade of grey. Merely by writing this addendum to a typical story of power, love and revenge, Adirvalai Bimbangal soars in the eyes of its audience.
Adirvalai… at first, comes across as a story we’ve heard before. This is why the climax and the subsequent closing scene hold special significance for they bring with it multiplicity of perspective, warrant an opening of the mind and do not settle for any comfortable solution. And despite being set in a time that is difficult to imagine, the play manages to strike a chord with the present. Even in this, the closing scenes are crucial. Vedarun who is also the writer of the play has written a script that executes complexity well. That it was a period drama was made clear by the particular use of dramatic lighting, the imaginative sets and even in the manner in which the cast delivered the dialogues. Each of the actors performed their parts well. Though there were some bits that bordered on melodrama.
Dance, beautifully choreographed segments in fact, played a crucial role in the play taking on the onus of staging the conflict throughout the story. And, finally, music deserves a special mention for all the pieces in the play were carefully chosen and superbly composed by the crew itself.
