Shakespeare’s tragedy set in India.
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Selected portions of Shakespeare’s play trace the emotional life and downfall of Macbeth’s Queen, as the couple rush headlong towards their doom. Anjali has re-imagined the play using the techniques and aesthetics of Indian dance drama, setting it in the lofty halls of an Indian palace. The action is portrayed using the precise, flamboyant hand gestures and expressions of Kathakali, a 17th century dance-drama technique from Kerala in South India: The costumes are silk saris, encrusted with gold. Lady Macbeth was created by Anjali in India, with her Kathakali master of many years, Sadanand Balakrishnan. Selected portions of Shakespeare’s play trace the emotional life and downfall of Macbeth’s Queen, as the couple rush headlong towards their doom. Anjali has reimagined the play using the techniques and aesthetics of Indian dance drama, setting it in the lofty halls of an Indian palace. The action is portrayed using the precise, flamboyant hand gestures and expressions of Kathakali, a 17th century dance-drama technique from Kerala in South India: The costumes are silk saris, encrusted with gold.
Evocative videos and images of palaces and forts in India serve as a backdrop to this modern use of the Kathakali dance-drama technique. Like Macbeth’s Scotland, early India was full of warring fiefdoms, of violence, treachery and betrayal, and included characters like the witches with “more than mortal knowledge”. The theatrical dances, costuming and make-up of the witches add to the sinister, malevolent atmosphere of the production.
The outlines of women’s hands are still evident on the walls of Rajasthan forts and palaces, witnessing a royal tradition from the past: When defeat in war was inevitable, the women of the court took their lives by fire. As they walked to the pyre, the women pressed their red henna’d palms on the whitewashed walls, as a final signature on the palaces where they had ruled.
Anjali (Anne-Marie Gaston, D. Phil. and M. Litt., Oxon), born and raised in Ottawa, was the first professional classical Indian dancer to perform across Canada. Her solo recitals included sold out recitals at the National Arts Centre, Ottawa and across Canada from 1970 onwards. She performs several styles of South Asian classical dance: Bharata Natyam, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Kathakali, and Chhau. Her international career includes recitals throughout India, UK, USA, Mexico, France and Greece.