Mumbai sees a comeback of classics

Whether it’s Sophocles’s Antigone, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, or Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, you know it’s going to be a full house. Theatre enthusiasts have, time and again, revisited and reinvented classic literature, thanks to their universal appeal. In recent times, Mumbai’s theatre scene has seen an increasing number of classic stage adaptations, both from Hindi and English literature.

Theatre director and producer Raell Padamsee’s Academy for Creative Expression will hold a series of workshops on old classics throughout the year for kids. She’s starting off with the production of Wizard of Oz. “The idea is to introduce children into the musical genre — acting, singing, dancing, and miming, thus breaking away from the rigours of academics. Kids will also ideate on the costume props for Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion.” says Raell. Her academy does an annual show of the old favourite, Sound of Music too. “It’s the timeless music, the simplicity of the story, characters that touch the heart. In a workshop format, you have to be creative, but in the play format you need to have the script as close to the original possible,” she says. Workshops, Raell points out, gives a sense of immediacy and involvement, and boosts the urge towards performing arts.

City kids can take part in several other workshops involving classics like Oliver, Seven Dwarfs and The Mary Poppins.
Deepa Gahlot, NCPA’s Head Programming, Theatre & Film, opines that the advantage of revisiting classic plays is that people have heard or read about them are excited about the prospect of watching them. “Since the theatre experience cannot be replicated, the only way of getting each new generation to rediscover the classics is to do new productions,” she reasons. Deepa, who loved classic plays like Ace’s Sound of Music, Motley’s Arms and the Man, Andha Yug, and Aadhe Adhure in Hindi, feels a classic is a classic because of its merits. “But what each director can do is find new ways of interpreting and designing them differently, or modernising the language without changing the emotion or meaning. For instance, a story like Romeo and Juliet can be updated to the modern age (Bazz Luhrman’s version) and still be relevant,” she says.

Actor Neil Bhoopalam, who is part of Arghya Lahiri and Pushan Kripalani’s version of the Girish Karnad classic Hayavadana and also Hamlet — The Clown Prince, says, “Classics will always be revisited — some stick to the purist version, while most others do a version of their own. Maybe it’s the character or the story that people find most appealing.”