We had a date with the theatre this weekend. We had high hopes for an entertaining evening, reminiscing the better parts of Hindu prose and mythology.
We were sorely disappointed. Shakuntala, a tale of love and honour, written by Kalidasa was grossly misrepresented in this theatre production at Pleiades Theatre at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto.
I had seen Anita Majumdar on stage prior to this production in the Misfit. It was very entertaining. She played 6 different characters in a riveting one-man show and did it with such energy and finesse, that she captivated her audience who stayed behind an entire hour or more for questions and an opportunity for a tete a tete with her and Deepa Mehta.
It grieved me to watch her become the weakest link in Shakuntala. She did not evolve into the character at all. It was as if Shakuntala had been kidnapped and Naznin had taken her place to complete the production. Her king and companion, Sanjay Talwar's Dushyanta was the most over-dramatized and extremely cliched Queen that had the gall to play the Majestic yet love-lorn Dushyanta. The lead characters were completely outstripped by the supporting cast. The Brahmin friend to Dushyanta, as well as Shakuntala's two female companions were stunning in their performances.
Its a pity that a production that had taken so much care in creating the atmosphere, composing the rhythmic screenplay and directing an English adaptation of a age-old story of love, could have gone wrong with the casting of their lead characters; thereby destroying the breath-taking illusion they had so painstakingly endeavoured to create.
1 comment:
was it tht bad?
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