A Dangerous Mind

This scene,famous in Shakespeare’s Macbeth,is also one of the most poignant in Kannan’s Macbeth Cholliyaattam,a rendition of the original play using techniques from Kathakali,a dance-drama form from Kerala. “Macbeth Cholliyaattam is a cultural translation of Shakespeare’s play. More than an adaptation,it is a collaboration between the play and Kathakali. We’ve made no changes to the original dialogue,but we enact it with the hand gestures and the ethics of Kathakali,” says Kannan. While Kannan is the sole actor in the performance,there are others who lend their support to the project — one person renders the play’s dialogues while others perform the accompanying musical score. “It is a lyrical presentation of the story created by the combination of dance,song,percussion and dialogue,” says Kannan.

Cholliyaattam,he says is a Kathakali performance with elaborate make-up and costume,presented so that the audience can learn more about Kathakali technique. “That was how Cholliyattam was used traditionally,usually depicting Indian mythological or historical stories such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. But I present solo Cholliyattam with themes and ideas that are new to Kathakali,” he says.

“Macbeth Cholliyaattam is about Macbeth’s state of mind. It does not depict the entire play,but his personal journey and the internal emotional and mental process he goes through before the king’s murder and right after it,” he says. Kannan had performed a similar Macbeth-themed production as early as 2001 in the US. At that time,the production was a collaboration with other artistes. For the first time,Kannan is taking his production out of Kerala with his maiden performance in Pune on Friday,following which he will travel to Ahmedabad and other cities.