Shakespeare Namana, a five-day festival to commemorate the 400th death anniversary of William Shakespeare was inaugurated on March 29. Five amateur theatre groups of Bangalore – Abhinaya Taranga, Drushya, Samashti, Sanchari and Sanchaya – have come together to perform one translation/adaptation each, of five of his plays at Ranga Shankara.
And what better way to inaugurate the festival than with the performance of Julius Caesar – a play whose themes of patriotism, sedition, democracy, loyalty and betrayal have never ceased to be contemporary?
Abhinaya Taranga performed this play, which is one of Shakespeare’s more serious and introspective tragedies: the kind where while the plot remains largely uncomplicated, each character is multilayered and complex; it defies simplifications and clear categorizations. The team should be congratulated on accepting the very challenge of attempting it.
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O. L Nagabhushan Swamy’s translation was a literary treat in its own right. The lines stay true to the original while creating a new aesthetics of the language.
The costumes were meticulous: right from the Toga to the Caligae and the laurel wreaths of the noblemen, to the gowns of the noblewomen, everything was in shipshape. Class difference as a sartorial expression, was quite explicit. This combined with the light effects, made for impressive mise en scène.
The centrally raised, stepped stage served many purposes: as the marketplace for commoners to celebrate Caesar’s triumph; as the senate for speeches; as the secret hideout for hatching conspiracies; as the varied, luxurious topography of a nobleman’s house; as the stage to exhibit Caesar’s body while addressing the public. A set created by strategically stacking planks brought about this effect; the dexterity was in having one set create the space for all requirements. The lighting was diffused and flush most of the time, suggesting well-lit spaces that put the onus of communication upon oratorical elements. Light, along with sound, was used for special effects such as thunder and lightening.
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Crowd scenes were the highlight of the performance. From theatric elements of crowds descending from the audience, to the noise and the clamour from the wings indicating large gatherings, made the feeling of huge numbers of people, very believable.
The imperfect casting – a boyish Caesar, Brutus lacking brute strength (and more unsure of his lines rather than his stance on Caesar’s ambitions), Mark Antony equally unconvincing in love and grief, and the less than enthusiastic group of conspirators – perhaps set the stage for plummeting energy. “Et tu, casting… then fall, acting!” if one is allowed the audacious wordplay.
But thanks to the other redeeming elements, particularly Pramod Shiggaon’s powerful direction – the performance was a good visual experience. Also, thanks to the long, wide and prominent history Shakespeare occupies in theatre and literature worldwide, the spectrum of performative excellence is so wide that it’s extremely difficult to be excluded from it. Hence, this show of Julius Caesar was a Veni, Vidi of direction, costumes and music – even if not quite Vici.