Anya Theatre’s latest production, William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, is all set to be staged on April 5 at the Academy of Fine Arts. Abanti Chakraborty is helming the roles of the director and editor for the play, featuring an ensemble cast from the theatre fraternity. After directing William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream on stage, under the banner of Anya Theatre, titled Chaitali Raater Swapno, the director is back on stage directing a Shakespearean play after almost 12 years.
“It is a classic and always relevant. Shakespeare was at least 500 years ahead of his time. Romeo & Juliet is an eternal love story but at the same time, it is a very violent story to me. Violence, peace and love are parallelly moving in this play and it expresses the reality of the times we live in, too, where violence is gradually increasing. The world of this play is a world of love and violence. Love is also true here and violence is also true. The play is based on two texts — a deconstruction of Romeo & Juliet, inspired by the Czech novelist Jan Otcenasek’s Romeo, Juliet and Darkness and Debes Roy’s translation of the original text. The deconstructed text is something I could relate to and make a comment with it on my interpretation of love and violence,” said Abanti.
Talking about using Debesh Roy’s translation and two binary texts to stage the play, Abanti said: “Words are the magic of Shakespeare’s writing and words are like poetry in his text. Debesh Roy’s translation captures that magic in the Bengali language and he has been so authentic and loyal to the playwright. It was a very challenging thing for me to work with two binary texts. There is no constructed set in this play as such. Light and music play a crucial role in this play by defining the performance space. There will be live music, where we will use cello, guitar, drums, harmonica and violin.”
Sudip Sanyal is doing the light designing and Subhadeep Guha is shouldering the music design of the play. The cast will feature senior members of Anya Theatre as well as other actors who have trained in Abanti’s workshops or have acted in her plays before, like Tathagata Chaudhuri, Rwitobroto Mukherjee, Shweta Bagchi, Anwesa Bandyopadhyay, Krishna Dutta and Manjuri Dey among others.
“It’s an actor’s dream come true. Honestly, I couldn’t believe that Abantidi and Anya Theatre offered me this part, especially when I don’t have the physique for it. I’m extremely grateful to my director and Bibhash sir for trusting me with the character of Romeo. It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced to date and I’m trying my level best to deliver an honest performance,” said Rwitobroto Mukherjee.
Bibhash Chakraborty, who is producing the play from Anya Theatre, said: “Romeo & Juliet is a love story that could have a beautiful ending but didn't due to the family feud. If we place the story in today's context, be it globally, in India or just in Bengal, we can see that personal relationships, romance and dreams have had to be sacrificed always and are being sacrificed due to larger political reasons. We are a generation that has seen many wars and how people's normal and honest way of living life has been affected by it. Abanti very intelligently connected and rewrote Romeo & Juliet with Romeo, Juliet and Darkness. We loved that idea." It is the group’s third production of a Shakespearean play. The tickets for the play’s 6.30pm show at Academy can be booked online from https://www.thirdbell.in/events/romio-jooliet/.
British Council Calcutta will host a panel discussion with this play’s director and cast member Rwitobroto Mukherjee on April 23 to mark the birth anniversary of William Shakespeare, titled ‘Shakespeare in Bengal’. “Translations and performative adaptations are important aspects of British Council’s approach to literature and theatre. And as someone with an academic interest in Shakespearean performances in India, I look forward to this particular adaptation of Romeo and Julie, directed by Abanti Chakraborty and based on Debesh Roy’s translation,” said Debanjan Chakrabarti, director of British Council, East and Northeast India.
Pictures courtesy: Anya Theatre