Globe Trotting

The story of mistaken identities was reaching a climax in one of the halls at Bhavan’s College in Mumbai,which is the hub of theatre rehearsals. In the adjacent room,a persuasive woman was winning her husband over. In case of the former,the rehearsal of Baranvi Raat,Hindi adaptation of Shakespearean comedy Twelfth Night,by Mumbai’s Company Theatre group was on. The other room was occupied by Arpana Theatre group’s cast of All’s Well That Ends Well in Gujarati — called Maro Piyo Gayo Rangoon for its India run and Sau Saaru Jenu Chevat Saru for its London premiere. These two Indian plays feature in Globe to Globe festival — a first-ever initiative by Globe Theatre,London,to stage all 37 plays by William Shakespeare in as many languages by theatre practitioners from across the world. This is part of World Shakespeare Festival for the London 2012 Festival.

Both,Sunil Shanbag,director of Maro Piyo Gayo Rangoon,and Atul Kumar,director of Baranvi Raat,have no recent experience of watching a show at Globe. They try to visualise its space from memory and the videos they have seen online. Both the adaptations have resulted in musicals. “When I read Twelfth Night,I could visualise it with music,” says Kumar. Peppy folk music and dance apart,he wanted to keep the dialogues of the Hindi version full of banter and oodles of impishness. Unlike Kumar,Shanbag has been working with live music on stage for some time now,and for this play,he has used the folk tradition of Bhangwadi. However,Maro Piyo is his first Gujarati play.

While rehearsing,both the groups also have to keep in mind the rules laid down by Globe Theatre. The crew should not exceed 12 while the performance time is 105 minutes. The duration has demanded massive editing of the original text. “However,we have kept the essence of the play intact,” says Shanbag,adding that the group has two extra members at its own expense.

Maro Piyo will be staged at Globe Theatre on May 23 and 24.