A pastiche reinterpretation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Mukhoshtantra is the fourth production of Kolahal. It marks the return of actor and social activist Nigel Akkara on stage after 7 years. PRAJNA In this play, Bengali martial folk forms like Chchau and Raebeshi, and South Indian marital forms like Kalari and Silambam have been used with the Filipino Art of Kali and the Maori art of Haka. Mukhoshtantra is all set to premiere at Rabindra Mancha, Chittaranjan on 4 April, on invitation from Anubhab cultural group.
Light design for this play has been planned by Kalyan Ghosh while the periodic costumes have been done by Sajsajja and sound design by Bandan Mishra. The cast and crew of the play are mostly from Kolahal. Nigel played the lead role of Macbeth, actress Ashmita Mukherjee played Lady Macbeth, poet and actor Debasish Sarkar played Duncan and the role of Malcolm has been portrayed by Prajna Dutta. This adaptation by director Prajna Dutta is pickled with periodic action scapes and incorporates multifarious folk and martial dialectics on stage.
Though the characters are from the bard’s famous play, however they are trapped in a new chronotope that essays their past and present as they don the fair in the foul and foul in the fair portraying the tale of their life. This play uses both facts from history and fiction from the bard’s play as a canvas to paint a new postmodern pastiche caught between primitive innocence and modern decadence.
