Nothing Like Lear- Rajat Kapoor Reigns the Stage

 

Vinay Pathak as the Inimitable Clown in Nothing Like Lear

It was yet another brightly lit Saturday night showtime at Mumbai’s Prithvi Theater on July 11, 2015. The stage was once more set ablaze with Shakespeare’s script- this time Rajat Kapoor’s interpretation of King Lear- teasingly titled Nothing Like Lear. A solo act for 1 hour 20 minutes to capture the main plot of the protagonist and his daughters, Gloucester and his legitimate and illegitimate sons Edmund and Edgar and the themes of life, parenthood and death- a feat superbly accomplished by the director and his inimitable actor Vinay Pathak. 

Webbed shoes, patched suitcase, the hat and the coat took care of the costume, painted face with prominent red nose addressed the make-up and the clown was ready to play myriad characters and portray multiple emotions. Seating the late comers and cracking jokes with the front row audience, Pathak intentionally established the interactive mode. By repeating “It hasn’t started yet”, he told the audience that they need to be alert and engaged. By referring to the three-month long, 8 hour per day rehearsals and the meticulously chosen script; he even attempted meta-theatrical allusions. Mentioning the mind-numbing TV watching practice and the uncaring “pumping”, the Fool pushed his audience into critical self-reflection.

The local context and concerns were thus catered to while simultaneously enlivening Elizabethan England tragic drama. Nothing Like Lear built a theatrical bridge to close the gap between King Lear’s love for his daughter and modern man’s tryst with parenthood in the urban India. The iconic “Howl, Howl, Howl” soliloquy was rendered thrice eliciting three different emotions each time- from comic to angry to tragic. The countryside English heath was recreated through the storm and rain in the city and truly, the “make-believe” world turned more real by the minute. The use of shadows induced by sudden and strategic lighting takes the audience by surprise. It takes an ingenious directorial vision to visualize the imaginative and innocent flight of a young Cordelia through a shadow dance-cum-mimic act done by the father figure. Similarly, the vehement and vengeful cursing of the daughter by the betrayed father is most powerful in communicating the angst of a parent Shakespeare intended to lock into his words. 

Nothing Like Lear constantly transitions from the comic to the tragic. The audience is transformed into intelligent receivers of art, ideas and culture. Conceived by Kapoor, executed by Pathak, this one’s not to be missed!