Twist to the classics

Writer-Director Rajat Kapoor shares that experimenting with clowns on a classical text was a great idea

Reinterpreting the classics Rajat Kapoor

It is going to be Shakespeare once more as the ‘The Shakespeare Comedy Theatre Festival’ comes to town with four adaptations. Written and directed by Rajat Kapoor, the plays will have actors like Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Kalki Koechlin, Cyrus Sahukar and others. A formidable name in the field of theatre and cinema, Rajat shares his experiences in a chat with MetroPlus .

Tell us about ‘The Shakespeare Comedy Theatre Festival’ being held in Hyderabad?

There are four adaptations of Shakespeare texts.

What’s Done is Done (Our version of

Macbeth ),

Hamlet the Clown Prince - (Hamlet );

I Don’t Like It, As You Like It - (As You Like It ) and

Nothing Like Lear (King Lear ).

How has the experience of using clowns as a theatrical expression been?

It’s been a discovery for me. I had directed a play called ‘C for Clown’ in 1999. That was my first experiment with clowns and then this thought came to me, ‘what if clowns were to take on a classical text.’ And that gave rise to Hamlet in 2008. I think it is a great theatrical device because straight away clowns are able to give you a distance from the text and its characters and now you can watch the text unfold from another, more detached (yet moving), perspective. I think it’s a great tool.

Are any other props used?

There are four plays. Nothing like Lear has a completely bare stage and one lonely clown. Other plays are more populated with people and things. As You Like It is the most spectacular of them all in terms of its visual design. That is the only one which has a set that needs rigging and all of that. It is quite magical.

How did the classics fit with clowning?

All through the evolution of these plays, I was very sure that we must not lose the original pathos of Hamlet or Lear or Macbeth - even though we bring it through clowns. The clowns can evoke laughter but they can as capably bring out other emotions. The clowns also help us re-interpret the classics. They make them contemporary.

You said you have never read Shakespeare. Then why interpret Shakespeare?

I was intimidated by Shakespeare — by his language, by the aura he had around him; by the fact that he was so revered. And I think that is a big stumbling block for anyone (at least from our country) to really enjoy Shakespeare. How can you enjoy something when it has around it an aura of sacred space! I think part of our attempt, through our clowns has been to break that myth. Shakespeare, when he wrote and performed in his times, did it for the general public (the so-called aam aadmi ) of his time. And they understood him and he understood them.

This layer of high art came to his texts over the centuries. Because I feel we were bold enough (or stupid enough) to get on with Shakespeare on an equal footing, we could see his text for what it is. My attempt has been to discover these texts for myself to go deeper into them, to find meanings that still relate to us, 400 years after they were written.

Do you recall any special Hyderabad memories ?

The first time I came here was in 1986. I was a student at FTII, and I think it was the first international film festival in Hyderabad that year. Fifteen of us stayed at a friend’s house in Banjara Hills; it was beautiful. Since then, I have been to the city many times.

What are your future projects?

A film that I had acted in last year, and is very close to me, called Mantra is to be released in March. It’s a wonderful indie film with me, Kalki, Adil Husain and Lushin Dubey. Then in the second half of this year, I will direct my next film ; I am looking forward to that.