A morbid exchange
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Ninasam’s Tirugata brought Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice as Venissina Vyaapaari
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Venissina Vyapaari Shylock’s performance was haunting
What does one value in a Shakespearean play? Certainly not the plot, I would say. If you are the kind to lose your heart over rhetoric, then it has to be the Bard; lyrical and intense. His characters are universal; in spirit they are eternal. Hence,
the story of Shylock and Antonio doesn’t come to a close with the end of the play, “Merchant Of Venice” — they live on, well into our times. If this play means anything beyond its flowing prose and intense portrayal it’s perhaps the fact that we can still read it — and significantly at that — in the 21st century context.
Ninasam Tirugata staged “Venissina Vyaapaari” based on Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice”. Directed and translated by Akshara K.V. the presentation was lively and engaging. What bound the production strongly was Akshara’s powerful translation, almost bordering on poetry. If the choice of language does determine discourses, then Akshara uses the dialects with great attention — at once bringing in a joyful variety and accentuating its politics too. It leads you to an understanding of the various cultural assumptions that were prevalent when the play took shape.
At the outset the play seems a conflict of two business interests. It seems like an intolerance of their respective business modes. But the play voices strong anti-Semitic views and has clear resonances of a smouldering racial conflict between Christians and Jews. Throughout the play you are led to believe that Shakespeare takes an anti-Jew position, but it needs a masterly stroke like his to subvert and rest his sympathies with Shylock, the Jew. Shylock, is portrayed as evil, greedy…all un-Christian attributes, but the playwright leaves broad hints that the others in the play are in no moral position to judge him. In fact, one almost wonders if Shakespeare wants to reveal the hypocrisies of the Christians through Shylock. The “pound of flesh” deal seems far less cruel than what Antonio demands of him.
The talented cast carried the play with élan – the energy of the play never to dip. They said their lines with great eloquence and style, demanding careful attention of the viewer. Body language between the male characters attracted special attention and one wondered if the director’s intention was deliberate. Gopalakrishna Deshpande as Shylock stood out for his remarkable performance. Sitara as Portia was engaging too.
What rises beyond the plot of the play is what holds one’s attention. But unlike Akshara’s earlier production of the same play, this one didn’t seem to make those strong political suggestions, as they exist today. On the contrary, it almost seemed to put an end to the story of Shylock and Antonio with the play’s conclusion. They continue to exist in other parts of the globe, fiercely and violently — in a perpetual blood bath, much against Portia’s reading of the “pound of flesh” clause.
DEEPA GANESH
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Chennai and Tamil Nadu
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