Bard call from India: This musical production presents a Shakespearean play with an Indian twist

Actors perform a musical sequence in the play. Pics Courtesy/Siddharth Saurabh

Authors like Ruskin Bond, Agatha Christie and JK Rowling were part of our growing up days. But when it came to William Shakespeare's works, be it gauging Hamlet's grief-stricken soliloquies, or Romeo's passionate declarations of love, it was important to get a grip on the language and grammar. Writer-director Amitosh Nagpal begs to differ.

"When we were touring the world for shows of Piya Behrupiya, which is a Hindi-Bundeli adaptation of Shakeapeare's Twelfth Night, we noticed how we had to include subtitles for the audience. This prompted me to think about the importance of language in striking a chord with viewers. In India, the English we speak is very different and layered with accents. The idea then was to adapt a Shakespeare play that a middle-class viewer would enjoy and relate to," he shares with us over a call, a night before the tenth production of Mandli Talkies' play, Middle Class Dream of a Summer's Night, at a city venue.

Having toured cities like Ahmedabad and Delhi, the two-hour long musical production will take the Bard's 16th century comedy, A Midsummer's Night Dream and put a colloquial twist to it. "If a middle-class person goes to watch a Shakespearean play, they might not be able to relate to it. There is great writing of course, but the language would be very alienating to them, which is why it was important to stage a production that is inspired from the speech of a common man, which often consists of phrases like "Come forward, beta," or "Do this, na." How a Maharashtrian speaks English is very different from how someone from Tamil Nadu or West Bengal would speak the language. This is what makes the whole thing interesting," he explains.

An alumnus of the National School of Drama, Nagpal's humble beginnings in Karnal in Haryana often guides his urge to bring in a classic Indian sensibility to his work - a theme that shines through his cinematic and theatrical oeuvre. "Back then, we would often be asked to read and stage plays by Shakespeare.

Amitosh Nagpal

I would refer to these books that had heavy Hindi translations of the dramas and that would make no sense to me. Nobody really talks like that," he recalls.

This is where the director's understanding of India's diverse cultural nuances, especially in the context of a middle class setting finds a spot in the chaotic world of the Shakespearean play where humans collide with fairies, lovers are manipulated and multiple subplots converge for an iconic comedic climax. Nagpal's
adaptation, aided by an ensemble cast and peppered with subtle political commentary and regional humour, will attempt to capture all of this in this production.

"I am extremely conscious when it comes to writing for theatre or even cinema. I want the story to reach the last common man in the room. The thing with Shakespeare is that the more you get into his dramas, the more accessible it becomes. I surely plan on exploring more of his work," he reveals before signing off.

ON May 4; 4 pm onwards
AT Experimental Theatre, NCPA, NCPA Marg, Nariman Point.
LOG ON TO in.bookmyshow.com
ENTRY Rs 500