These days Satyadev Dubey appears a very frail man. But that does not prevent him from talking, abusing, more talking and even more abusing. The veteran director is indefatigable in his pursuit of the theatre-a theatre that is built on a decidedly modern but �no frills� vision. With packed houses witnessing the opening shows of his adaptation of Jean Anouilh�s ANTIGONE, the man was clearly in his element.
Produced by Motley and played no less by a stellar cast that includes the supremely versatile thespian Naseeruddin Shah, Dubey�s adaptation of Anouilh�s text does not labour to provide a discernible, contemporary context. Quite unlike the reception that Anouilh�s adaptation of Sopohocles� Greek classic met with, when first produced in France. Many viewers then saw the play as a political allegory of the prevailing German occupation and the counter movement of the French Resistance.
And yet this adaptation, which according to Dubey has also been spurred on by Jean Cocteau�s one-act version of the same play, retains its essential conflict between the individual and the state; the individual being represented by Antigone and the state being represented by her uncle Creon, who has assumed power in the ancient city of Thebes.
Anouilh�s adaptation is a departure from Sophocles� original in that it is playful, nuanced and immediately more accessible to modern day audiences. The classic Sophoclean conflict is demystified. The absolute terms of heroine/protagonist and villain/antagonist don�t amount to much. Anouilh makes a case in point of Antigone�s hubris and Creon�s thesis for his actions suddenly appears justifiable. Creon is no longer the cruel King but a man besieged by the politics of everyday rule. No longer can we say for sure who is right and who is wrong.
In spite of some misgivings in the first half of Dubey�s adaptation in which we sense Ratna Pathak Shah�s Antigone as more of a victim than a woman who is flawed herself, the balance of power shifts to Nasseeruddin Shah�s Creon in the second half. The play in fact picks up in its second act. Dubey�s adaptation is thus careful to project the ambivalence that Anouilh must have intended for his two leading characters.
Having stuck more or less to the fundamental aspects of Anouilh�s text, Dubey�s version appears as a super-duper reduction of the same. As a result the play moves speedily. The first act is over before you know it. Jean Cocteau�s adaptation appears to be responsible for this speedy rendering. In the press meeting for the play, Dubey mentioned that Cocteau�s version reads like a news reel. Indeed very fast.
If Anouilh made some room for Haemon, Creon�s son and Antigone�s husband to be, Dubey has no use for him except in reference. He is clearly more interested in concentrating on the dialectic of idealism and pragmatism as represented by Antigone and Creon respectively. In place of a young lad who serves at Creon�s side, Dubey makes use of a narrator (Akash Khurana), who also serves in time as a trusted but silent member/aide of the royal family. Again Dubey�s version is more interested in getting its teeth into the impending conflict rather than following Anouilh�s easygoing prologue.
So while the prologue exists for all the good reasons it is tuned to the crisis that is to emerge. Again the narrator�s bit on tragedy, which is both of the play and of the greater universe of the theatre, has Dubey�s unique touch to it. The first entry of Creon�s guards, bound to the law of the land is evoked as the famous meeting of the three witches in Shakespeare�s MACBETH. Another of Dubey�s quirks but it works well enough.
His direction of the play once again emphasizes on the qualitative aspects of the actors� performances. Speech is paramount. Naseeruddin Shah�s Creon is a veritable study of a man torn apart by his ideals and his fondness for his �rebellious� niece on the one hand and by the more pressing call of duty on the other. He begins to appear like a benign dictator who has to rein in his masses. His reasoning with Antigone- self-justifying or fallacious as it can well turn out to be is not without its due effect.
A visibly ageing Ratna Pathak Shah manages to carry off Antigone�s part as a young woman; her two braids aiding her youthful transition. But it is Nivedita Bhattacharya�s Ismene (Antigone�s older sister) who clinches the opening act. She brings with her a waking sense of foreboding that dramatically explodes. An assertion of the director�s active role and especially if he is Satyadev Dubey, is seen in Trishla Patel�s playing of the Messenger. A tiny role but not without merit. Akash Khurana�s narrator, Nawaz Modi�s nurse and Kenny Desai�s guard are uniformly competent.
The set design meets the bare essentials of a rudimentary palace and music too is minimally used. Here is clearly an Indian play at hand, playing out a universal and timeless text. In the larger context nothing spectacular or exceptional emerges but this play has its moments. Antigone�s costume for instance resembles that of a Muslim woman�s. When she is captured and brought before Creon, her face is covered with a dark veil. Visual references to the Muslim woman and her burqua were also prominent in Dubey�s recent production of AADA CHAUTAL. If nothing direct, a way too oblique critique could perhaps be read. Even if you dismiss these ultra vague aspects as a director�s idiyosyncrasies, you�ll not come away too disappointed.
Dubey�s re-interpretation of Anouilh�s ANTIGONE may not score many points but it is a must-see. It has a vision and is line with his philosophy of the theatre. It undoubtedly bears the stamp of a master director at work.
*The writer is Editor of this site, a theatre critic and an academic keenly interested in Theatre and Performance Studies.
