A Fine Balance

Douglas Rintoul,on his second visit to the city eight years after he touched upon Kolkata while traveling around the world,offers his subtle sense of humour as consolation for theatre-lovers here. “I have come here as a satellite from the entourage of The Disappearing Number to make up for not bringing the production here,” he smiles,drawing the path of a satellite in air with his hands. The said production was performed before packed houses in Mumbai and Hyderabad. The Disappearing Number,conceptualized by Complicite director Simon McBurney,explores Math as a creative art while dwelling upon the cultural exchange between two strikingly different personalities – S Ramanujan and GH Hardy. “It’s a very expensive production. We are a 23-member team,” he says.

Rintoul,an associate director of Complicite,a frontrunner in experimental theatre in the UK,however,will conduct a two-day workshop on ‘contemporary multi-narrative theatre’ for theatre professionals and enthusiasts in the city. “I intend to discuss and share the methodology involved in Complicite’s take on theatre. Ours is a very actor-led form of theatre often devised from people’s personal stories. We might use a book as a starting point,a random discussion,an article read somewhere… anything,” explains Rintoul,who also has his own company Transport.

One is tempted to question Rintoul,who has adapted quite a few of Shakespeare’s plays,about the challenges involved in situating a Shakespearean play in a modern context. The director,who is in town,as part of British Council’s ongoing arts programme,has adapted Julius Caeser and A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream,among others. “If you conceptualise Shakespeare,you shrink it. You have to let the play breathe. It should operate both as a 16th century text as well as a modern text. For that,first it’s important to understand the central question in a given play,” says Rintoul. In Complicite productions,says Rintoul,the actors and the audience share the same space and time,transforming the creations into interactive,evolving pieces rather than a static,distant piece of performance. A method which lends itself extraordinarily to ‘modern’ adaptations of Shakespeare’s works.