THE MONTH IN ART, SOCIETY, PHOTOGRAPHY, BOOK AND MUSIC

in EDITED BY ANINDITA GHOSE

SPOTLIGHT Shakespeare and company He’s spawned more adaptations than things on heaven and earth. To mark Shakespeare’s 400th death anniversary this month, we ponder on his timeless appeal. Here are six reasons he’ll always be in Vogue

even when they had sex!” Shapiro, who has Because his social dedicated his life’s work to the Bard, tells us and political why Shakespeare is here to stay. What makes Shakespeare relevant today? concerns are Shakespeare wrote at a time when race, ethnic- 1 ity, globalism, capitalism and slippery gender still relevant identity were all coming into being. Now, 400 Professor JAMES SHAPIRO talks about years later, we’re still wrestling with these is- sues. Shakespeare is immediate, accessible and the enduring power of the Bard’s words electric, especially when presented in creative and novel ways. A professor of English and comparative litera- ture at Columbia University in New York, So you’re saying humanity hasn’t James Shapiro is a bit of a time traveller. He progressed in 400 years? lives between two time zones: the 21st century I once wrote that I would love to live in a world in which he’s a Samuel Johnson Prize-winning where Shakespeare’s plays were irrelevant. Shakespearean scholar, and 16th-century Eng- Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll live to see land in which he claims to know what “the that day. During Shakespeare’s time, people

PHOTO: PIERLUIGI MACO; GETTY IMAGES. STYLIST: ANASTASIA BARBIERI. MODEL: VLADA ROSLYAKOVA WOMEN MANAGEMENT. ON VLADA: DRESS, VALENTINO HAUTE COUTURE. WHITE COLLAR, FROM OPERA NATIONAL DE PARIS OPERA NATIONAL FROM WHITE COLLAR, COUTURE. HAUTE VALENTINO DRESS, ON VLADA: MANAGEMENT. ROSLYAKOVA WOMEN BARBIERI. MODEL: VLADA ANASTASIA STYLIST: GETTY IMAGES. MACO; PIERLUIGI PHOTO: weather was like, what people thought and were married at the age of 25. Only three >

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per cent of births were ille- gitimate—they were obvi- GENDER Because he can ously not having much sex. If men and women are de- BENDER Elizabethan law may win a rap battle nied sex, what do they do? have prohibited James Shapiro Repression and male aggres- 2If Shakespeare was alive today, he women from sion play a big role in his work, would have probably been a rapper. performing on stage Outrageous as it may sound, and while the specifi cs might be but Shakespearean English rapper and poet Akala different now, they are still very real issues. heroines sure knew presents a convincing case for this how to pack a punch. Ipremise at his talks around the Pick a Shakespearean work for 2016. Here’s to the world, where he blurs the lines It’s situational. For students on an American feisty ones between a hip hop song and a college campus, The Rape Of Lucrece, because Shakespearean work. it is an examination of political and sexual con- . LADY MACBETH At TED conferences, Akala MACBETH sent. If you’re in Syria, then Troilus And has surprised literary critics Say what you will about and college scholars with his Cressida (it looks at personal and political con- her cold-bloodedness— fl ict). If you’re concerned about gender issues, opening set. Sample this: Akala started Hip Hop after all, she convinces “‘Maybe it’s hatred I spew, turn to As You Like It, and if you’re dealing Shakespeare in 2008 her partner that murder maybe it’s food for the with ageing parents, there’s King Lear. is a prerequisite to spirit’—Shakespeare or hip the Scottish throne— hop?” he asks, only to reveal that these And for India? but this queen is are lyrics from the Eminem-Jay-Z song ‘Renegade’. Hamlet is a great play for India right now. It’s theatrical shorthand for “Shakespeare and great rappers are storytellers, about surveillance and about speaking the unfl appable ambition. masters of rhythm, poets of their day that truth and paying a huge price for it. experiment with words and create vocabulary,” says . JULIET ROMEO Akala, who in 2008 founded his touring company, AND JULIET Hip Hop Shakespeare, which performs adaptations What role do you see Shakespeare This brave heroine playing in the digital age? of the Bard’s work and hosts writing workshops for practically proposed young adults. You can make a seven-second video with clips to Romeo on that From Duke Ellington’s jazz poems inspired by you fi nd or have 1,000 people recite “to be or legendary balcony (“If Shakespearean characters to Nitin Sawhney’s not to be” on loop. Discover archival footage on that thy bent of love be score for Tim Supple’s Twelfth Night—the Bard’s YouTube—watch The Beatles’ A Midsummer honorable/Thy purpose mastery of meter has made him a springboard for Night’s Dream skit, Ian Mckellen playing King marriage, send me word musicians across the world. But Akala’s mission is Lear or Judi Dench as Ophelia. The possibili- tomorrow”), proving specifi c: to draw parallels between the rhythm of ties are huge and only being discovered. she was proactive, the iambic pentameter and the latest hip hop songs. courageous and way —Shahnaz Siganporia He demonstrates it e ortlessly, breaking into a rap ahead of her time. song on an old classic, ‘Sonnet 18’. “I think hip hop is today’s iambic pentameter,” he adds. An illustration from . BEATRICE “Rap gets a bad name, but it’s also about poetry Romeo And Juliet MUCH ADO and social commentary, just like Shakespeare’s ABOUT NOTHING highbrow literature,” says Akala, who will tour with his This spunky lady, in no production of Richard II with BBC this month. rush to be coupled o , Inspite of his repertoire of 37 plays and 154 sonnets, is armed with zingy we may never know if Shakespeare was the biggest one-liners. Case in musician of his time, but we do know he had a point: “I had rather rapper’s concern when he wrote in Much Ado About hear my dog bark at Nothing: “I was not born under a rhyming planet.” a crow than a man —Megha Mahindru > swear he loves me.” . CLEOPATRA TOP 10 ANTHONY From love ballads to raging metal numbers, AND our favourite Shakespeare-inspired tracks CLEOPATRA) Magnanimous 1) ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Dire Straits monarch or 2) ‘Love Story’ by Taylor Swift manipulator, it’s 3) ‘I’m the Walrus’ by The Beatles impossible not to 4) ‘Pull Me Under’ by Dream Theatre be wowed by this 5) ‘Roll Away Your Stone’ by Mumford and Sons Egyptian queen’s 6) ‘The King Must Die’ by Elton John political prowess English stage 7) ‘The Evil That Men Do’ by Iron Maiden or seduction. actor Ellen Terry 8) ‘Cleopatra’s Cat’ by The Spin Doctors as Lady Macbeth —Aarti Virani 9) ‘Waiting (O Mistress Mine)’ by Nitin Sawhney NXSH GETTY IMAGES; 10) ‘Miss Macbeth’ by Elvis Costello

112 VOGUE INDIA APRIL  www.vogue.in in Because 140 characters BECAUSE are enough for him HE MADE These Instagram handles, Twitter accounts and hashtags CINEMA 4infl uenced by Shakespeare are #mustsee #mustread MORE DRAMATIC @IAM_SHAKESPEARE: With #15SecondShakespeare: Scores 3Shakespeare’s plot lines over 48,000 followers, Willy Shakes, of British celebs gave pop songs have inspired a stream aka Joshua Strebel, tweets a verse an Elizabethan-era remix and then of global fi lmmakers from the Bard’s complete works once encouraged their followers to donate every 10 minutes. His handle proves to the Red Cross. Not to be missed: that brevity—140 characters, to be Minnie Driver’s rendition of the precise—is defi nitely the soul of wit. Kanye West anthem ‘Gold Digger’.

@PopShakespeare: From “Mine hips doth speak falsehoods” and “Thou shalt turneth downward for what?” to “Alas, West Side Story fi rstly: allow me to taketh a self-portrait,” (1961): The high- this giggle-inducing, highly quotable energy musical relooks Twitter feed provides a Shakespearean Romeo And Juliet. spin to reigning Top 40 lyrics.

@The_Globe: For a truly vibrant and #MaximumShakespeare: When spellbinding behind-the-scenes experience— the New York Times invited students think sneak peeks of dress rehearsals, awe- to recite their favourite Hamlet inducing interior design shots and intriguing excerpts, over a thousand 15-second backstage secrets (ever wondered how Instagram videos took over the Akira fake blood works?)—follow Shakespeare’s Ran (1985): Internet. Clearly, Shakespeare’s Kurosawa’s stylised epic beloved 16th-century playhouse, now a words aren’t lost on Gen Y. transports King Lear showstopper on Instagram. —AV to feudal Japan.

BECAUSE HE MAKES ETERNAL STUDENTS OF US With his work o ering multiple interpretations, Shakespeare makes for stimulating discussions The scene resembles a classroom, but From drawing parallels between PHOTO: PIERLUIGI MACO; AFP; GETTY IMAGES; REX FEATURES; SHUTTERSTOCK. REX FEATURES; GETTY IMAGES; AFP; MACO; PIERLUIGI PHOTO: ROSLYAKOVAWOMEN BARBIERI. MODEL: VLADA ANASTASIA STYLIST: COM. CHRISTIAN DIOR DRESS; BOTH BLACK JACKET, SILVER ON VLADA: MANAGEMENT. PHYLEA GLOVE, BLACK COUTURE. HAUTE it’s actually a living room, and instead John F Kennedy and Julius Caesar of school5 children it is a group of to showcasing rare archival clips, the Romeo + Juliet savvy Mumbai professionals [Vogue sessions are for those ready to take (1996): Baz Luhrmann’s editor Priya Tanna included] gathered time o from their busy schedules fi lm took immortal on a weekend afternoon, holding to engage in intelligent analysis. At romance into an ultra-Ton to every word of Shakespeare. Basu’s class, a reading of Othello modern setting. Conducted by educationist Bubla could set the group o to draw Basu, the Shakespeare Reading Club parallels with Naseeruddin Shah’s meets at homes across Mumbai, 1980 fi lm Sparsh or songs by from Altamount Road to Bandra. “It Bob Dylan. “While Shakespeare was in 1994 that I had my fi rst out- can be read intellectually, Bubla Basu of-classroom teaching experience. appreciating form and structure, A commerce student, a friend of there’s also a gut-level appeal my pupil, called saying he would that makes his work relevant today,” like to study Hamlet for pleasure. A adds Basu. The Bard’s audience group of six was formed of students may have been illiterate in his Omkara (2006): With who enjoyed literature beyond the time, but his audience its haunting soundtrack, syllabi,” recalls Basu. Today, juggling today is far from it’s Bollywood’s most multiple sessions with eight or 10 that. —MM > thoughtful tribute to participants, Basu conducts workshops the Bard. —AV that re-contextualise Shakespeare.

114 VOGUE INDIA APRIL  www.vogue.in in Because he continues to inspire the6 most exciting productions LEADING Where there’s a Will, there’s LADY a play. And thus, all the Three minutes with world remains his stage actor AYESHA DHARKER, who plays Titania in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s current Rajat Kapoor’s production of A What Is Done Is Done Midsummer... What’s your earliest memory of Shakespeare? Supple’s A Midsummer When I was fi ve, I Night’s Dream reimagined the play with a cast of fairies had a comic book of who spoke seven languages A Midsummer… I fell in love with Lysander When it comes to avant garde performances, and decided I had to few can beat the British theatre company look like him and went Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More. Spread across to the bathroom with a pair of scissors and six fl oors of an abandoned hotel in New York, a chopped my hair o . roving cast of actors performs to a masked au- Now that I’m grown up, dience—you could end up in a room fi lled with I’ve thankfully got over candy or one with an orgy. Even as Shake- the idea that you have speare’s stories inspire everything from the version of Macbeth, titled What Is Done Is Done, to look exactly like the Bolshoi ballet to Benedict Cumberbatch, Sleep features a cast of scary clowns. person you love! No More is so unusual that the Bard himself What makes the Bard a stage favourite might have had trouble deciphering that it is a through the centuries are his universal themes What makes this take on Macbeth. that allow for multiple interpretations. “The show a must-watch? Adaptations in India are getting increasingly extraordinary thing about Shakespeare is that Besides our core cast of 18 professional Wradical as well: we’ve seen King Lear as a 21st- no matter how many times you tackle a play, actors, it is a fi rst for century CEO (Mumbai-based Yuki Ellias’s Dy- there’s more to discover,” says Sleep No More’s the RSC in that we are ing To Succeed) and Helena from All’s Well director, Felix Barrett. It’s the plot and charac- collaborating with 14 That Ends Well spouting love ballads in Guja- ter insights that make Shakespeare a popular amateur companies. rati (Sunil Shanbag’s Maro Piyu Gayo Ran- choice for many. Director Atul Kumar, who in So I’m working (and goon). It seems that the only way to be truthful 2012 gave us Piya Behrupiya—(his Twelfth rehearsing on Skype) to the Bard in modern times is to follow what Night adaptation that premiered to rave re- with 14 di erent actors Peter Brooks once said: “Evoke Shakespeare views at the Globe), notes, “The world that playing Bottom! It and then forget him.” Shakespeare creates is refl ective of the human means that the show will That’s precisely what Tim Supple did when condition in its deepest sense. It cuts across cul- be di erent every week. he reimagined A Midsummer Night’s Dream as tures and language.” No wonder they are the You’ve played a multilingual production with a cast of aerial most translated works after the Bible. Othello’s Emilia, performers. “Shakespeare was in no way origi- There’s no escaping Shakespeare this month. and now you play nal. His genius was to take widely shared sto- His hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon, will be Titania. The two are ries and make them unique. We now think of the backdrop for much activity and the British so di erent... Hamlet and Romeo as his… the stories he took Council plans to gear up with Shakespeare Ye s , Emilia couldn’t be on were already mythic but he rendered them Lives, a global celebration of the playwright’s more di erent from archetypal,” observes Supple. Director Rajat unrivalled infl uence. Going by the rate at which Titania, queen of the Kapoor’s approach is singular too. In his works his works are changing for the stage today, they fairies, but they are (Hamlet: The Clown Prince and Nothing Like all promise to be as inventive as Kumar’s mod- both worldly women navigating their way Lear), Shakespearean heroes are played by ern-day summary of Hamlet: through complicated clowns. “I cannot stand watching Shakespeare “(Hamlet enters) relationships with their done in a conventional fashion. Hopefully, in Hamlet: Oh f**k! lovers or husbands! each of my plays, the clowns become metaphors (Exit Hamlet)” ■ Visit Rsc.org.uk for

for different things,” says Kapoor, whose latest —MM show dates —MM GETTY IMAGES

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