Not everybody can be a clown: Rajat Kapoor

After his adaptations of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, King Lear and As You Like It, actor-filmmaker Rajat Kapoor is back on stage with What is Done is Done, his take on Macbeth. With a stellar cast that includes actors such as Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Kalki Koechlin and Jim Sarbh among others, the play will have its Mumbai premiere on June 5 at NCPA. And this time, Rajat tells us, the clowns are dark and scary. Over to him...

The play has already been staged in Kolkata. What was the response to it and what are your expectations from the Mumbai audience?

As you know, we’ve just had one show of the play so far. The response was fantastic, warm and intense. But the real thrill for me is when we are ready to present it to the Mumbai audience. More than anything else, the excitement and the fear of presenting it to my theatre friends, who are the most brutal critics for me.

This is the third Shakespeare play for you and the fourth when it comes to clowning. What is it about clowning that connects it so well with the Bard for you?

Well Hamlet was the first one where we mixed clowns with Shakespeare, and it worked well. There was no idea at that time of attempting more Shakespearean texts — it was just a one-off thing. And here I am now, done four Shakespeare texts with clowns. What the clowns do in the first place, is they provide a distance from the text. They give me the liberty to twist the text, they can critique the characters even when they play those very men and women. This provides us a rare device to be in our shoes and looking at ourselves from outside.

A lot of theatre people admire you for your clowning form. It’s not easy and needs a technique and skill that’s different from other forms. What do you find fascinating about it and how do you approach it?

It is difficult especially on actors. Not everybody can be a clown. Moreover, the way we work— without a text, improvising every day but hoping that somehow we’d find a way home and the journey would be worthwhile for us, and for our audience. This is the tough part and we need actors who trust the director and their co actors.

How did you approach Macbeth for What is Done is Done? Why did you choose this play for your third Shakespearean outing? 

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most fascinating texts. Greed and ambition and lust or power have never been dealt with better. And what an amazing first act! It is incredible. The speed at which things unfold. Of course, in response to the text, our clowns also changed quite a bit. This time, the clowns are dark and scary.

You direct movies and plays. Do the techniques overlap or are they very different?

They are completely different from each other.

Who do you admire for their theatre skills? 

Ratan Thiyam. Enormous respect for his work!