At the recently concluded National Theatre Festival 2017 at Rabindra Sadan and Minerva Theatre, Kolkata organised by Minerva Natyasanskriti Charchakendra, Ranan presented “Crossings: Exploring the facets of Lady Macbeth”. Directed by Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar recipient (2015) Vikram Iyengar, the dance drama is a meaningful confrontation of the facets of Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth performed by four performers bringing together elements of Indian classical dance,the original text of “Macbeth” and Hindustani classical, folk and tribal music. Iyengar talks about the interpretation, crafting, imagery and symbolism of the production.
What was your impulse behind designing “Crossings...”?
The spring for all my works stem from Kathak, and Kathak informed body. Throughout my training and performance career, I have constantly found new challenges to work with and have returned in various ways to question — how can Kathak engage in a dialogue rather than be a monologue? This has led me to work extensively with dancers and actors together with designers, composers and other collaborators exploring new performance idioms, bringing together text, movement, music and design. I wanted four aspects of Lady Macbeth so I started splitting the character into four parts.
05dfr Vikram Iyengar
Tell us about the significance of the rituals in the production
The only time Jayoti does puja is when she recognises that there is a threat to Duncan from herself, her other facet. Her puja becomes more assertive because she has to find that strength in her to counter what is violent in her. My reference of puja was for getting strength, for murder of course!
Apart from thumri, Chhattisgarhi folk songs, why did you use the lullaby?
That one line that Lady Macbeth says, ‘I have given suck and I know how tender it is to love the babe…dash the brains out’. In the three lines you get to know how tender it is to love the baby and a really violent image of dashing but we never see her as a mother but that line informs you that she is a mother. We brought the baby in as a metaphor for motherhood and to show tenderness verses violence.
Why does Jayoti wear a net at the end?
I wanted the whole stage and all the four to be covered in the net. You know that all four of them are actually one character and over the course of the play starting from the banquet scene more or less you see each one of them breaking. At the beginning, you see four as one and then one by one each one has different ideas. Debasree (Kathak dancer) thinks of how to murder. Then she has to convince this person, that person. Jayoti (theatre actor) is never convinced. Then from four it goes to one again.
So there were different kinds of transformations and reasons for saying no. Debasree was very much about ambition — that I shall do it for myself. I looked at Dana (petite, theatre actor) to be more about being in equal partnership doing it for Macbeth if she deserves it. For Anubha ( theatre actor, Bharatanatyam dancer) it was more about romantic vision that ‘Oh If I were the Queen, I would have been this..that..’ Each one has a different reason for agreeing to the murder. So you see the character splitting and then at the end of it completely breaks down.
So there is a tussle in Lady Macbeth
Absolutely. The tussle is between a strong conscience and morality, ethics, ambition or opportunism and that conflict is such a universal conflict!
