The mowed lawns of Alka Jalan Foundation’s Daga Nikunj in Ballygunge was transformed into an emotionally purgative and interactive space with folk music and theatre on the evening of March 5 at a folk presentation curated by Sangeeta Datta, writer, film-maker and Ehsaas woman of London. The evening — organised by Prabha Khaitan Foundation — began with a soulful rendition of baul songs. Songs like Tomay hrid majharey rakhbo, Khachar bhitor achin pakhi, songs of Lalan and Bhaba Pagla mesmerised the audience with the resonance of the ektara and the baul performance by Girish Khyapa.

The prelude performance of the evening was followed by Ebong Amra theatre group of Tepantar, the theatre village, at Satkahunia’s presentation of an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth in Bengali. The play was performed under the direction of Kallol Bhattacharya, whose group also runs the theatre village and the rural theatre centre. With an aim to look out for and treat the audience to new interpretations of Shakespeare, curator Sangeeta Datta, who has worked extensively at bridging the gap between the UK and India culturally and is a member of the board of the British Shakespeare Association, proposed the concept of presenting the familiar play’s adaptation integrated with baul songs. This time, the attempt was to bridge the gap between rural and folk theatre and the Shakespearean elitism and cultural elitism of the city.

“I was in Tepantar theatre in late December when a mini theatre festival was happening. It was an absolute discovery for me to see a community of artistes staying in an eco-sustainable environment and Kallol has brought in a lot of local people from the community to come into theatre instead of moving into drug abuse. Performance, art and culture is a way of living in Tepantar. This is social transformation through theatre. Theatre has a much more root change to bring in the society. I told Kallol that I wanted to bring him to Calcutta. I thought it was important for the urban audience to get an idea of what kind of work was happening in rural theatre, and the bridge between suburban and urban culture really needs to narrow down now. I think art and culture have to become more egalitarian. Since we are bringing rural theatre, we also brought folk music with it,” said Datta.

Much akin to renowned dramatist Badal Sircar’s concept of the third theatre or alternative theatre, theatre group Ebong Amra presented their experimental Bengali adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy with their distinctive presentational aesthetics of rural theatre amidst the natural environment. The open-air setup with the audience sitting all around the ground made the presentation interactive with a successful breaking of the fourth wall. Following Sircar’s ‘anganmanch’ concept of a courtyard stage, the small platform stage created at the far end of the garden had minimum, inexpensive and transportable props used by the actors with minimal use of lighting.

Much emphasis in this interpretation of the tale of “vaulting ambition”, greed, gory murder and bloodbath was given to sound design and music. Be it announcing the arrival of King Duncan or that of general Macbeth and Banquo to meet the witches in the first act or the coming of the Birnam wood to Dunsinane in Act 5, sound design followed by or interspersed with live baul songs, adding an apt musical expression or commentary to the situations, was a unique part of the presentation.

With no ornamented costumes or any attempt to emulate looks through dressing-up, costumes in the play and the costume props served a mere representation purpose. An interesting representation of rural artistry and handiwork was noticeable in the costume props of the witches and kings. The actors’ actions mirrored the concept of ‘free acting’, with significant emphasis on the use of the body and voices, as well as efforts were seen in involving the audience through making apt use of the space in between the elevated platform and audience seats through actors’ movements.

The script, dialogues with rhyme and rhythm, and the direction captured and expressed the emotions well while communicating the tragic tale through the easy use of language and following the trajectory of performative theatre. However, as an audience of such an interpretation, to miss the portrayal of the porter scene in the more than 40-minute presentation was a wee bit disheartening. The evening’s performance concluded with an audience ovation.