arabhuj has come up with yet another rendition of Macbeth, underscoring the enduring popularity of this Shakespearean classic in Bengali-language theatre. Unlike most recent retellings, which tend to adapt Macbeth with varying degrees of liberty or use Macbeth as a launching pad to narrativise contemporary experiences, Sarabhuj’s production remains fairly loyal to Shakespeare’s plot, with some alterations introduced into the mix. However, it is evident right from the beginning of the play that the focus of the director, Tarun Pradhan, is not so much on telling the tale as it is on exploring a certain formalistic structure of representing the narrative. Therefore, Pradhan dispenses with portions of the plot somewhat nonchalantly, trusting the audience’s familiarity with the saga of Macbeth and his queen to help fill in the deliberately created blanks.

As a director, Pradhan allows his visual imagination to take charge uninhibitedly, so much so that the narrative is carried forward through meticulously designed compositions fabricated around arresting visual images. Soliloquies, thus, do not convey Macbeth’s thoughts; rather a creature characterised by reptilian movements does. Everything that is visual — be it the colour and the texture of the actors’ costumes or the various set elements and properties used — is made to project the directorial strategy of telling a story through images. It is refreshing to encounter a performance in which the director thinks like a painter and Pradhan deserves to be applauded for successfully cementing the link between the theatrical and the graphical. The light design, quite naturally, has a crucial role in this process of image-making and Dhanapati Mondal, the light designer, has come up with an inspired and, one might say, lavish scheme of colours to sufficiently highlight the director’s impulse to create a visual delight.

An aspect that remains thorny in this otherwise engaging production is the attempt to insert the narrative of Macbeth within a ‘tribal’ performative mode that remains ethnographically undefined and, as such, devoid of the compelling sting of cultural politics.