Monday,11,2019
Prof. Sukla Basu (Sen) is Professor of English at Viswa-Bharati University and directs student productions based on Shakespearean plays.
Interviewed by Rupayan Mukherjee.
Tell us something about your production.
Our production is a tribute to Shakespeare on his 450th birth anniversary. The celebration of Shakespeare Day on the 23rd of April has been a long tradition in the Department. However, due to the introduction of the semester system we could not have the celebrations for the last few years. This year we tried to revive the tradition of the performance of the Shakespearean play and also decided collectively that the performance would be made public, i.e. open to the masses and not merely confining the bard within the domains of the University. Three plays of Shakespeare were primarily chosen for production- As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night. However, since the project appeared too lengthy we were forced to cancel out Twelfth Night. Our production aims in depicting the latent violence in Shakespearean comedies. For instance, in As You Like It the foresters of Arden are shown to be sporting guns and emphasis has been laid on the violence that is expressed on the animals, such as, the lioness episode where Orlando kills the lion that tries to attack Oliver. We have tried to maintain the forest as a real forest and not a Utopian garden of paradise. In the translation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (which we are producing in the vernacular), emphasis is made on the violent verbal exchange between lovers, the violence that erupts between Helena and Hermia and also on the rather disturbing sexual jealousy which is a part of the Titania-Oberon episode. In the Twelfth Night production that we had planned to stage (it was an adaptation), we tried to depict the tradition and determinant role of state sponsored violence in history of mankind, but unfortunately, we had to discard it due to chances of the production becoming too lengthy and tedious. Shakespeare’s production demands a lot of cross dressing, i.e. girls dressing up as boys, since in any university department you have lot of girls wanting to act as boys. Our production is characterised by a lot of cross dressing as well. The setting of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Athens, and in this particular play, Shakespeare is exploiting the theatricality of his time to the full. Hence, there is an extensive use of masks in the play, and our production also replicates the same. A lot of masks, both bought over the counter and handmade have been used extensively. As far as the costumes are concerned, As You Like It is played in contemporary Western attire and Chaitali Raater Swapno (the translated title for A Midsummer Night’s Dream) is played in Bengali attire, going with the context and setting of the play. The vernacular text of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that has been used is a translation by Sudhangshu Ranjan Basu which has been further re-translated and adapted by MA II students to contemporarise it, i.e. it has been made to sound like an original Bangla play with enough raciness and elegance in it. The play within a play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is made to see as well intentioned and ridiculous, if possible. Both the plays have undergone drastic cuts, the first being of 50 minutes in length while the second is an hour’s production. But I sincerely hope that the story line has been maintained so that anyone unfamiliar with Shakespeare will also be able to enjoy the play.
Why did you particularly choose two comedies? Was it a deliberate or an unconscious choice?
It was a very conscious choice. My interest in choosing two comedies instead of tragedies (which are better known) was to direct the viewer’s attention Shakespeare’s comedy writing abilities, which is not sufficiently recognised in academia. Having devoted a lot of time to teaching comedies in class room, I have been surprised every time a new character came on stage and acted his/her part and I have come to realise how well Shakespeare had mastered the art of writing stageworthy comedies (not farces) by 1590s. Thus, we hope that our tribute to Shakespeare, which is the production of two of his well known comedies, shall take the academicians and popular viewers by surprise.
Was your production planned keeping in mind the 150th birth anniversary of Shakespeare?
Yes, it was. As I have told you, the tradition of putting up a Shakespearean production on his birth anniversary by the English department of Viswabharati has been discontinued for the last few years. This year, special pains were taken to ensure the production, and what is more we decided to make the production public this year.
Both As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s Dream is musical in essence and involves a lot of songs. Could you please comment on the musical quotient of your production?
For A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we haven’t used any of the translated songs, those done by Utpal Dutta or by Sudhangshuranjan Basu. We have instead used a Tagore song- “phooley phooley dholey dholey” which is sung by the fairies and which becomes the theme song of the play. In As You Like It, we have retained the original Shakespearean songs but we have renewed the musical arrangement. The songs have been set to music by our talented lead actor who acts as the fool in both the plays.
How were the actors prepared for the production? Were there workshops, group discussions etc. organised?
Our actors, who are all students of the Department, were advised to approach the subject with an open mind. Most of them are open to films but haven’t seen any Shakespearean performance on stage perhaps. The texts were re-read again and again and small informal workshops were organised where self referentiality, methodology etc. were discussed. Rigorous rehearsal sessions were organised after the normal class hours and the actors were very sincere when it came to practice and hence one can conclude at ease that it was the labour of love on their part. I think, for people who haven’t performed Shakespeare previously, this is a very good introduction. Some of our actors are first timers and only a sincere viewing of the play should reveal their excellence.
Any other production (in English or vernacular) of Shakespeare that you have seen recently or which has stayed in your mind?
No, I haven’t seen any vernacular production of Shakespearean plays as such. Possibly, I was in class VIII when I saw Utpal Dutta’s production of Othello. I also saw the Cambridge production of Macbeth that was made in 1981 and the Roy production of Comedy of Errors in 2000. The Dept. of English had put up productions of Merchant of Venice, The Mary Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night and Chaitali Raater Swapno (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) that was directed by Prof. Swati Ganguly and involved the interplay of four languages: Bengali, Hindi, English and Santhaali. I have seen all of them, not merely the performance but also the preparations involved.
How were you first acquainted with the world of Shakespeare? Was it through text or performance?
It was through the text. While I was in my school (St. Agnes Convent), we had A Midsummer Night’s Dream in our class VIII syllabus. Prior to that, in standard VII, we have already had a taste of his works through Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare. In standard IX, we had Merchant of Venice in our syllabus. I went on to study a lot many Shakespearean plays in college and university which include plays like Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth etc. We would then have in our syllabi a compulsory Shakespearean paper and a special paper.
Do you think that Shakespeare still persists as an imperial icon?
No, not now really! We for the present are in a good state to reproduce Shakespeare. Shakespeare provides a space for empowerment. An attempt is being made to produce Shakespeare, disregarding his language. However, a new form of internal cultural imperialism is also simultaneously persistent as we try to determine our cultural quotient by considering the number of Shakespearean performances, adaptations, translations a language or a community has. We tend to enter into such considerations and comparisons locally when we boast “Bengali has more number of Shakespearean adaptations than Gujarati”, which for me is another kind of cultural imperialism.
What is your opinion about the adaptation of Shakespearean plays? Do you think that adaptation in some way spoils the essence of the original?
Adaptation always acts as a form of resistance. By integrating the ideology with the original, an alternative space is created. Adaptation may always interest a neutral audience obliquely. It doesn’t necessarily spoil the original. That will be a generalisation. For me, Vishal Bharadwaj’s Haider is a film in its own right. One always has the right to interpret a Shakespearean play, which adaptation necessarily does.