First produced 2004
Concept and Direction: Vikram Iyengar
Created with: Anubha Fatehpuria
(Joyoti Bose and Dana Roy)
Archana Ramaswamy
Debashree Bhattacharya
Suman Sarawgi
Music: Nageen Tanvir
Percussion: Siddhartha Bhattacharyya
exploring the facets of Lady Macbeth
Crossings weaves together the dance forms
of Kathak, Bharatnatyam and Manipuri alongside text-based drama
to explore the many facets of Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth.
Conceived and directed by Vikram Iyengar, this formed part of
his Sangeet Natak Akademi National Junior Fellowship project
looking at bringing together the languages of classical dance
and text-based drama. With references to other figures from
Indian mythology such as Putana and Shakti, Crossings examines
what it means to be feminine and / or de-feminised. Fluid
borders such as these are addressed in both the content and
style of the presentation: crossings between and within
characters, between concepts of gender, between verbal and
gestural languages, between and within forms of performance
…
Four performers represent facets of Lady
Macbeth in constant conflict to create a fluid performance
woven from four strands - a verbal text constructed from the
dialogue of the original play, a movement text drawing from the
dance forms, a musical text created in response to both words
and movement, and a symbolic text crafted from the imagery in
Macbeth and the symbolism which imbues Indian classical dance.
THE PROCESS
This production began without a name,
without a form, without a premise. It began with a fascination
for the character of Lady Macbeth, a fascination intensified by
witnessing a 45-minute solo performance of the character by a
virtuoso Chinese Opera actress in 2001. Ideas and images began
to form, a desire to explore the Lady through performance
languages familiar to me was born. [more]
FROM THE DIRECTOR
What do dancers come equipped with? Their
bodies, a vocabulary of movement, a language of gesture and
expression, codes of communication-some easily decipherable,
some hopelessly obscure as far as the lay audience is
concerned. How did one go about making things clear for an
audience uninitiated into the codes of classical dance? How, in
fact, was it possible to interpret Lady Macbeth through
classical dance? After all, she does not fit into the mould of
any Nayika that we dancers are familiar with. Did that mean
that our dance forms could not or would not sustain her? Was
there no way in which we could create the essential power of
this character through what our forms offered and worked with?
AWARDS
At the first Mahindra Excellence in Theatre
Awards in February 2006, Crossings was nominated from eastern
India as the best production in the Emerging Theatre category.
At the festival in Delhi showcasing the nominees from the four
regions of the country , Crossings won the maximum awards in
the Emerging Theatre category, four in all:
Best Direction for Vikram Iyengar
Best Supporting Actress for Archana
Ramaswamy
Best Innovative Sound Design for Nageen
Tanvir
Best Costume Design for Vikram Iyengar.
PRESS
A performance that has a flow, movement,
musical and symbolic texts. Certainly one of the best.
- Romesh
Chander
The Hindu, New Delhi, February 2006
Myriad Faces of Mrs. Macbeth: [a] riveting
interplay of power and passion through Kathak, Manipuri,
Bharatnatyam, or just monologue.
With three dancers, an actress, a singer
and a percussionist, the young Vikram Iyengar has adapted the
Shakespearean text into an ambitious and challenging dance
drama.
- Reshmi
Sengupta
The Telegraph, Calcutta, April 2004
