By Siddhi Jain
New Delhi, Oct 3 (IANS) As a high-pitched melancholic music shrieks through a Macbeth set here, the three witches of the 17th-century Shakespearean play appear on the stage crawling, setting the tone for one of the greatest tragedies penned by the Bard.
Dressed in white, flowing silhouettes and masks, the three introduce "Macbeth" -- a Hindi version of the original classic -- staged at the Sri Ram Centre here last week. Directed by noted theatre personality-scholar K. Madavane the presentation holds the audience in awe.
The witches, pivoting the play around their prophecies, were indispensable to the storyline.
Their first prophecy, naming Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor after his victory over the previous title holder and eventually becoming the King of Scotland, instigates what the play revolves around -- Macbeth's thirst for the throne, and the unscrupulous means through which he and Lady Macbeth manage to acquire it.
A timeless dialogue between Lady Macbeth and her husband, although translated in Hindi for the play, captures the essence of the original.
"Bear welcome in your eye/ Your hand, your tongue./ Look like th' innocent flower/ But be the serpent under 't."
It is translated to: "Aapki bhav-bhangimaaon mein prem hona chahiye/ Baag mein khile phool jaisi nirmal/ Lekin jiski kyaari mein chhupa ho zehreela naag."
Through a striking enactment, "Macbeth" brings forth an inevitable flaw in the human psyche -- hunger for power -- that blinds the human to suffering, justice, and even empathy.
The witches, ever-present on the stage, represent this dark psyche that refuses to subside.
"Those who know theatre, come to Macbeth for witches," Director K. Madavane told IANS.
"According to the script, witches are supposed to be in just three scenes, but for me, they are the dark forces of everyone. Everyone has those witches inside them, that's why they are present throughout (in my play)."
Madavane also said the witches were purposely dressed in white to transform how they are perceived.
"I like witches. They are perceived as bad characters. Witches are normally women who have knowledge, and are perceived as dangerous.
"In a patriarchal system, people don't like women with knowledge. But I've given them the power," he added.
The second prophecy coming after Macbeth's cold-blooded murder of King Duncan, is as dramatic as the first one, and hurls the play into gloom, as a mystery hovers over its outcome.
Falling in line with their characters, the witches incite pride and a feeling of invincibility in Macbeth, as they tell him he will not be killed until the Birnam Wood came to Scotland, and that he cannot be killed by a man born of woman.
Needless to say, Macbeth was certain he cannot be conquered.
The witches, who knew all but revealed next to none (as the audience realise later), never fail to charm as they make multiple entries and exits in the play.
For the viewers, it is also interesting to observe the interplay between the actors and the stage they are put in.
A crisscross of sheen, pastel-coloured curtains -- the set transforms the theatre into a dark cauldron, brewing "shadows and secrets" as actors pull them back and forth as the scenes progress.
"The set for me has to be functional. It is one of the actors for me. Actors have to establish a certain kind of relationship with the set. Here, the relationship was with the curtains drawn in and out," said Madavane, who took over two months to bring his interpretation of "Macbeth" alive.
The tragedy culminates with Macduff defying the witches' prophecy -- usurping a near insane Macbeth as his past returns to haunt him and his wife with hallucinations of bloody daggers and ghosts of those they murdered.
Madavane's "Macbeth" although one among many attempted at revisiting the Shakespearean classic -- is definitely one ought to be seen.
The play will be staged five more times at multiple venues in Delhi and Gurugram in October. Tickets can be booked online at www.bookmyshow.com.
(Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in)
