“Men oft are valu'd high, when they're most wretched.” Such powerful words coming out of a damsel-like young lady would have had even the non-feminists among the audience retrospect.
The Duchess in the John Webster’s ‘Duchess of Malfi’ directed by Professor Elango Natesan exhibited a combination of fragility and agility: fragility by appearance enhanced with perfect and elegant costumes of the times and agility through delivery of powerful dialogues in a melancholic tone that sets the mind to think and empathise with the character.
To draw a contemporary relevance, she reminds one of Kousalya of Tamil Nadu and Amrutha of Telangana, both survivors of ‘honour' killing. Here, the Duchess, a widow, defies her brothers’ orders and marries a steward in secret only to get killed by their henchmen. The myriad emotions displayed by the actor who donned the Duchess role were a delight to watch.
Giving her a tough competition in acting prowess were the students who played Antonio, Ferdinand, the Cardinal and Bosolo. The pick of actors gelled well with Webster’s original characters.
Change in settings, as the revenge tragedy demands, aided by props displayed the backstage crew’s exemplary efforts to give a feel of real-time crime thriller. Lightings proved too effective to replace bloodshed on stage, as all characters in the play are done to death. But at the same time, it forcefully brought out the brutality of the crime.
Background score overpowered all other theatrical elements. And, the song - "I'm Duchess of Malfi, I remain still' - mesmerised the audience and kept them engaged whenever the curtains came down to facilitate stage makeover. That not a single person moved from her or his seat during this time at the public show of the play staged in The American College Saturday last was enough proof.
On the flip side, delivery of dialogues by some student-actors lacked clarity and the affected accent by a couple of them made comprehension difficult. Yet, their action-packed performance overshadowed the minor flaws.
To sum up, a non-literature student’s comments that “the play gave me the thrill of watching a crime movie on silver screen” can well be taken as the resonation of every other person in the audience.
P.S: Had the auditorium matched the richness of the enactment and theatrical elements, the audience would have had an enhanced visual treat. For, the last-benchers had to strain to have a clear view and the echo made a dent in the performance. Looking forward to The American College setting up a hi-tech auditorium.
Photo courtesy: Fourth Wall
