DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

FACULTY OF ARTS

THE MAHARAJA SAYAJIRAO UNIVERSITY OF BARODA

VADODARA- 390002

SUBJECT: SPECIAL AUTHOR- SHAKESPEARE

PROJECT: INDIANIZING SHAKESPEARE, WESTERNIZING KATHAKALI

BY

AASTHA BHATT- M.A. 2 SEMESTER 3 DECEMBER 2018

PRN: 2014033800040521

PROJECT GUIDE: DR. DEEPTHA ACHAR

The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word.

-Mata Hari

When you dance, I wish you a wave o’ the sea, that you might ever do nothing but that.

-William Shakespeare (The Winter’s tale)

INDIANIZING SHAKESPEARE, WESTERNIZING KATHAKALI

I.

The plays of Shakespeare have been adapted into various forms of art over the past four hundred

years. The poet and playwright has inspired many writers, painters, dancers, musicians and film-

makers to create their own version of his plays. While the film and theatre adaptations have been

very popular, the theatrical and extravagant quality of Bard’s plays have also significantly inspired

many dance recitals and performances. In the West, the plays like Macbeth, Midsummer Night’s

Dream and The Tempest have been choreographed into Tango, Ballet and Contemporary dances.

Indian dancers have also not been spared from the Shakespearean influence. The classical dances of

India, namely Kathakali, Bharatanatyam, Odissi and Kathak have given a relatively small yet an

interesting space to the Elizabethan plays of Shakespeare. According to John Dryden, dance is the

poetry of the foot. Keeping this in mind, the rhythmic verse dramas of Shakespeare and the

elaborate taals and jatis of the classical dances make a very amusing combination.

This paper would be focusing on the dance form of Kathakali. It is one of the major classical dances

of India which developed as a Hindu performance art from Kerala. The word ‘Kathakali’ can be

broken down to ‘katha’ which means story and ‘kali’ (originating from ‘kala’) which means art and

performance. The origins of this form are unclear. Its fully developed form came into being in the

17th century. It has elements from ancient temple folk art like Kuttiyam, other religious dance drama

and Indian martial arts and athletic traditions of south India. With stories from the Mahabharata

Kathakali was more secular or less sacred and a celebration of the craft of the Nair warriors, the

caste or jati that first performed Kathakali. The gods have a very limited role in Kathakali.

Both Shakespeare’s plays and Kathakali gained their proper form around the same time, that is 17th

century. Shakespeare has been become a part of the Indian culture of performing arts because of his

dramatic plots, twists in the tales and his ‘extra’ characters. Subtlety can neither be associated with

Shakespeare nor the Indian audience’s need for entertainment. It has to be kept in mind that before
it become a reputed art form, both Kathakali and Shakespeare’s plays were meant for the common

public. Moreover, the plays of Shakespeare were among the first one to be translated into

vernacular languages. And like in Kathakali, the plays of Shakespeare are about human characters,

not divine figures and celestial beings.

In terms of performance, in kathakali and the stage performances of Shakespeare’s plays

traditionally, the artists were all male. The performers would adorn woman dresses and accessories

to play the female characters. This was because of the same reason in both the cases, that theatre

and performing arts on stage were considered to be professions of ill-repute for women in the

medieval society. These are some of the links that present a parallel between two arts forms from

two different cultures having a similar creative history.

Mrinalini Sarabhai said:

“The real self of an artiste lies in art, so when an artist performs, all the pain, trauma and

tension get released through art, be it dancing, singing, writing or even martial arts.”

This resonates with Aristotle’s explanation of the experience of catharsis at the end of a tragedy. But

in this case, the audience and the dancer/performer feel liberated by expressing the supressed

emotions. This cathartic experience is also felt by the plays(tragedies) of Shakespeare.

I have referred to three performances in particular-Kathakali King Lear performed at London’s Globe

Theatre in 1999; The Magic Hour, directed by Arjun Raina and performed by Cicero’s Theatre

company in 2016; and Macbeth by Prabal Gupta in 2014.

II.

The first question that comes up when a text is adapted into a dance, is the focus of this adaptation,

that is which is more important- the plot, the dialogues or the action. This adaptation is what Roman

Jakobson calls Intersemiotic translation. Shakespeare’s play becomes the set of literary signs in the
verbal language which is converted into a set of performative signs of a non-verbal language, a

Kathakali dance performance.

According to Arjun Raina, the story (plot) is the centre of the performance. And Kathakali is a dance

drama, so it falls into the category of Nritya (based on Bharata’s categorisation of Nrutta, Nritya and

Natya in his ‘Natyashastra’). Traditionally, Kathakali’s plots are stories of weight and magnitude of

Indian myths. The recitals are based on various episode from Indian epics and folk tales which are

known to the audience. Diane Daugherty in her essay Kathakali King Lear at Shakespeare’s Globe

quotes from Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things:

“Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they

have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. ...

They don't deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don't surprise you with the

unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover's skin.

You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don't.... In the Great Stories you know

who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn't.”

[Source: Page no. 218-219. Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. 1997]

In case of Shakespearean performance of Kathakali, the plot had to be similar in magnitude, if not

length, because the plays are not as extensive as the epics. And the story has to be known to the

audience. Most of Shakespeare’s tragedies are known to the Indian audience because of the filmic

adaptations. Or else a lot of them have a vague idea about it. So, the performance begins with an

audio recording or through the live telling or in a written synopsis which tells the gist of the story.

Based on the interviews I had with Arjun Raina and Prabal Gupta, the choreographer (a western

term, according to Raina) or the Guru selects simple episodes from the play which can be

dramatically elaborated. The objective is not to stick to original text of the play, but to present an

Indianized form of it, complete with the pomp and glory.

Kathakali King Lear at London’s Globe Theatre in 1999 was performed by a mixed group of Indian

and European artists in front of an English audience. For this recital, the text of the play was

translated into simple Malayalam verses for the convenience of the dancers. Annette Leday, a

French artist immersed herself in the Indian culture and this art form and danced the role of

Cordelia. The audience, acquainted with the text could enjoy a very alien form of dance. The

Australian playwright David McRuvie who adapted the play said:

“There are no exact lines of Shakespeare in my adaptation. The idea was to write a clear

prose text for translation into Malayalam poetry, translation from poetry to poetry being

much harder, and much more prone to errors of sense.”

[Source: Page no. 58, David McRuvie, 1999. Daugherty, Diane. The Pendulum of Intercultural

Performance: Kathakali King Lear at Shakespeare’s Globe.2005]

This simplification does differ from the original structure of the play, but it also enriched the

foundation of the choreography.

Arjun Raina was the director and a character in his adaptation of Othello. But he changed the ending

of the play. The performance Magic Hour was a combination of Kathakali, Odissi and Japanese

Avant-Garde dances of Butoh and Bodyweather, which asks sincere questions, critiques and

pinpoints the problems in Shakespeare’s classic tale of jealousy and revenge in a playful style. The

villain Iago dies and Desmodena’s prayers are answered. It also includes Indian and Australian

elements in the script which Shakespeare fails to elaborate upon in his plays. ‘Peter Pillai’, Raina’s

character who calls himself part proud immigrant, part tortured child of colonisation resembles the

character of a jester as well as a chorus, who enacts the dark humour of racism in the guise of playful

entertainment. Him saying “In his play Desdemona is dead. Othello is dead…but Iago, a whitefella –

not dead!” in his colonised Indian voice sums up the purpose of the dance-drama.
Prabal Gupta has performed Kathakali Macbeth as a solo and as a group performance. For his solo

performance, he selected particular scenes from the play where the character of Lady Macbeth is at

the centre. In my telephonic interview with him, he said, “Lady Macbeth is an extension of

Macbeth’s self”. So, he felt no need to rename the dance performance as “Lady Macbeth”. The

recital comprises of the “Unsex me” speech, Duncan’s murder scene, sleepwalking scene and Lady

Macbeth’s death. Kathakali recitals usually have a male hero around which the dance is centred. In

his venture, Prabal Gupta wanted to concentrate on the strong female characters like Lady Macbeth

and Cleopatra.

So, it can be said that the plot is in focus, but the variation in its representation depends on the

creative objective of the artist.

III.

Dances like Kathakali and Bharatanatyam have sections where there are no words sung. The dance

is done on the beats and rhythm. The stamping of the feet and the quick hand movements form the

Nrutta section of a dance performance. In Kathakali, such sections are called Ilakiyattam where the

story moves ahead using hand gestures and choreographed movements.

Figure 1: The death scene of Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, performed by Prabal Gupta.
The death scene of Lady Macbeth was performed by Prabal Gupta without any words sing to narrate

the event. The expression of horror with the large painted eyes and a throbbing chest clutched by

red hands showed Lady Macbeth’s death by heart attack. Ilakiyattam for this scene was appropriate

because there is no on-stage scene showing her death in the original (text) play.

Arjun Raina differs in this aspect. According to him, where Bhava or emotion is concerned, the story

exists in the poetic text, and so the dialogues need to be sung.

IV.

Coming to the question of source text, it has to be noted that the text is not studied by all the artists.

The dancers learn the art by mirroring their Guru. Kathakali texts which are called Attakathas first

come from the author to the Guru/ teacher. The teacher creates the chorography and decides the

appropriate characters (Veisham), the ragas for the padams or sung text. The entire performance

exists within one body of the Guru. He then demonstrates the dramatic actions, gestures and

movements which the students/performers learn from him. Raina differentiates between mirroring

and imitating or mimicking in his thesis.

The dance movements, gestures and mudras emerge from the traditional practices of the dance

form. The choreography is not inspired by any other form of visual presentation like a stage

performance (play) or a film. While Gupta, a graduate of English Literature from the University of

Calcutta had been inspired by reading the text during his graduation, Raina chose to work with

Kathakali and Shakespeare’s Othello as they reflect the truth of his colonised self, his choices being

very personal and political.

The Kathakali King Lear was a production worked over and over again for almost a decade. Before

the Shakespeare adaption, the director McRuvie attempted to stage a Kathakali performance based

on Homer’s Illiad. The performance failed because the Indian dancers could neither understand nor

relate to the language. So, for the King Lear performance the text was translated into Malayalam.

The artists were explained the plot and action in detail which lead to a successful performance which
was enjoyed by the audience as well as the dancers. Thus, in this case, part of the troop was well-

acquainted with the original text, while the rest understood it through a translated text.

V.

The costumes of Kathakali are very colourful and grand. The huge red and white skirt, parrot green

face with black painted eyes, long hair and the enormous crown- this is the typical image one

remembers when the word Kathakali is mentioned. However, what is interesting to know is that the

Kathakali costume were influenced by Portuguese dressing. Moreover, the flounce and large dress

reflect a medieval look very similar to Elizabethan dresses.

In addition to this, Kathakali has a number of different costumes apart from the popular green

costume. The names of these costumes represent the quality of the character. Some of them are

Paccha (green- usually the hero), Minnuku (shining), Kari (black- monstrous), Teppu(painted) and

Katti (knife). Assigning these costumes for Shakespearean characters was difficult in case of

Kathakali King Lear, because these designated costumes hint the nature of the character to the

audience as well as affect the movement of the body and the possibility of uttering inarticulate

sounds. Eventually, the paccha was the King of France, Minnuku was Cordelia, Kari were Goneril and

Regan and Katti was King Lear. This was criticised by some critics because giving Paccha to the King

of France shifted the focus from King Lear as the protagonist of the play. The director and artists

reasoned stating that assigning Paccha to King Lear would limit his range of emotions. King Lear had

to be shown as the feudal king who had failed his subjects and betrayed his blood relations. Another

controversial costume choice was King Lear without the crown. In the initial rehearsals, the dancer

playing King Lear would come on stage wearing only a mundu. This was unacceptable according to

Kathakali tradition as no king comes on stage without his crown. Later, after much trial and errors, it

was decided that King Lear would appear wearing just a cap in the second scene, having removed his

crown from the first scene, signifying his downfall. By the end of dance-drama, King Lear is on the
verge of madness. To show his degrading sanity, the head-gear is covered with different kinds of

flowers. Figure 4 shows King Lear with a ‘crown of flowers.’

Figure 1: Paccha Vesham

The Pachha vesham is for the hero in the story, who is gentle, pious and noble. In Kathakali King

Lear, the King of France wore this costume, suggesting the valiant and heroic qualities of his

character.
 Figure 3: Typical Katti costume Figure 4: Katti costume in Kathakali King Lear

For his Othello performance, Raina was the only one wearing a Kathakali costume with a yellow

jacket, while the dancer playing Desmodena was dressed in a white Odissi costume. He stuck with

traditional attire to portray his Indian jester like character.

Figure 5: Arjun Raina as “Peter Pillai” in Magic Hour.

The costume for Lady Macbeth was also kept traditional by Prabal Gupta. The make up and costume

can be seen as in Figure 1.

Abhinaya is one of the most essential part of Indian classical dances. It refers to the physical

expression of the various emotions using mudras, neck movements, eye movements and even lip

movements in Kathakali. Kathakali dancers extensively use their eyes (which are made red using a

harmless seed), lips and cheeks for their expressions. All these movements are exaggerated and

loud, so that the audience can see them behind the heavy make-up.

The Mudras are hand gestures and movements which are used to narrate, describe and express

various emotions. In dance dramas, like that of Shakespeare’s, mudras enhance the dramatic

functions of the words which have to be highlighted in the sentence. The expressions though the

mudras convey the emotions experienced by the dancer’s entire body. The two hands are placed in

unique positions in order to show objects like the dagger in Macbeth. The movements of hands

express various emotions of the characters, for example the hands shaking and shivering in the

sleep-walking scene showing Lady Macbeth’s fright.

Figures 6, 7 and 8 show some of the mudras used in Kathakali.

Another important element of Abhinaya are Navrasa. As given by Bharata in Natyashastra, the

Navrasa are nine basic expressions which come out as a result of Bhaava (emotions). They are

Shringar(love), Hasya(laughter), Veera(valor), Karuna(pity), Bhibhatsa(disgust), Bhayanaka(fear),

Adhbhuta(wonder), Raudra(anger) and Shanta (peace). These various expressions are present in the

classical dances. They can be also observed in the plays of Shakespeare. The artist when he adapts a

play into a classical dance like Kathakali, he has to be certain about the essential bhaavas of the play.

These bhaavas would actually bring out the rasas in the dance performance. For example, Macbeth

has a variety of rasas involved at various stages of the plot, like Veera rasa when Macbeth and

Banquo return from the Battle, Bhayanaka rasa at the time of the banquet scene, Bhibhatsa Rasa

during the sleep- walking scene and so on. It would not be correct to assign a single rasa to one

scene or one character. In the same way, the dancer cannot adhere to only one particular rasa

throughout the performance. Most of Shakespeare’s characters have a multi-layered personality and

it is the responsibility of the dancer to explore and study each layer before taking on the role of such

a character.

Figure 9: A Kathakali artist displaying various

rasas, using his eyes, lips and neck.

The performance of Kathakali King Lear explored a number of rasas. Karuna, Raudra and Veera rasa

were dominant in the dance drama. The Karuna rasa can be associated with King Lear and the Veera
rasa can be associated with The King of France. The scenes with Cordelia and The King of France

presented the Shringara rasa. These rasas are a dominant trait of the charaters, which does not

mean they will express only these rasas. They would express other bhaavas as their character

evolves in the narrative.

Figure 10: A scene from Kathakali King Lear. Here the characters of the King of France and Cordelia

display the Shringara Rasa.

The dance drama of Magic Hour’s Othello also incorporated different Rasas in the performance

through the various characters. Othello’s character displayed Veera and Raudra Rasa, Desmodena

displayed Shringara and Karuna Rasa and Iago displayed Raudra Rasa bordering on Bhayanaka rasa.

The character of ‘Peter Pillai’ played by Raina is satirical and represents mockery which is

combination of Hasya, Karuna, Raudra and Adhbhuta rasa.

Prabal Gupta’s performance of Macbeth shows the rasas which are expressed by the same character

of Lady Macbeth in different scenes of the dance drama. The character displays Veera and Shringara

rasa when she is reading Macbeth’s letter, Raudra and Veera rasa as she pushes her husband to

murder King Duncan, Bhibhatsa, Bhayanaka and Karuna rasa in the sleep-walking scene and in the

death scene. So, this shows that rasas are overlapping and a single character can be associated with

multiple rasas.
Kathakali King Lear and Magic Hour’s Othello were group performances. So, the rasa for one

character is distinct, while Prabal Gupta’s Macbeth was a solo performance where the rasas change

with the change in events and scenery.

Based on the observations made about these three performances, I conclude that these Kathakali

adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays were successful in impressing their audience. They were

modified according to the creative abilities and aesthetic choices of their directors, choreographers

and artists, but they retained the theatrical essence of the Bard’s creation, while being a unique art

form in their own sense. The literary plays and the performing art form share elements of costumes,

make-up, rhythm, performance, expression and cultural legacies which Indianized Shakespeare and

westernized Kathakali.

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