Macbeth in Spotlight

Theatre & Cinema series

08th to 10th March 2024 _Online.
20:00 to 23:00 IST | 15:30 to 18:30 CET | 09:30 to 12:30 EST | 14:30 to 17:30 GMT

OVERVIEW:

“Macbeth in Spotlight” aims to understand why Shakespeare’s voice still echoes through us endlessly across diverse mediums, cultures and minds, stirring something profound within us and compelling us to reflect back something of our own in the shade of his art’s emotional and intellectual intimacy. We are bringing together Artists and Scholars across the world to share such interactions with the bard through his shortest and bloodiest masterpiece “The Tragedie of Macbeth.”

This event also explores the subtleties and challenges inherent in translating the language, emotion, and narrative of one of Shakespeare’s most vital meditations on the dangerous corners of the human imagination. At the commencement of the event, attendees will have the opportunity to explore theatre performances and a series of curated cinematic adaptations as recommendations for personal viewing beforehand. In the ensuing days, the event will feature in-depth discussions with eminent artists and scholars, shedding light on the nuanced layers of numerous interpretations.

Co-hosted by Jill Navarre, a distinguished playwright, screenwriter, and the artistic director of the Auroville Theatre Group, in collaboration with the Auroville Film Institute, “Macbeth in Spotlight” invites the audience to witness the metamorphosis of “Macbeth” across diverse cultures and artistic visions.

You’ll not only witness the magic of storytelling within these Shakespearean interpretations but also develop a profound appreciation for the multiplicity of perspectives that interlace their cultural, intellectual, and personal nuances into the very fabric of this iconic play. This event is an opportunity to appreciate the intricacies of human emotion, cultural richness, and boundless creativity as they meet Macbeth.

SPEAKERS:
Dominique Goy-Blanquet (Shakespeare scholar, Professor Emeritus at the Université de Picardie)
‘French Macbeth: The horrid image doth unfix my hair
No other play in the canon has inspired so many films around the world, not to mention other art forms. In France, despite the ‘auld alliance’, the Scottish play never reached the popularity of Hamlet. After some Brechtian productions in the wake of Jan Kott’s essay, it made a belated entry at the Comédie-Française, with a creation for the Avignon festival in 1985. Among eminent stage directors drawn to Macbeth, the youngest so far was Thomas Jolly, now engaged in the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic games, while the even younger Silvia Costa is rehearsing Yves Bonnefoy’s translation at the Comédie-Française. Her production will be the first screening of Macbeth ‘en direct’ from the theatre on 25 April 2024.

Deb Kamal Ganguly (Filmmaker and Academic at Auroville Film Institute)
Beyond the Modernist Appropriations of Macbeth
The Cinematic Glimpses Towards the Premodern Affectations
Cinematic renditions of Macbeth, focusing on the downfall of a powerful individual, captivate modern audiences. However, this predominant interpretation of Macbeth occludes the brilliance of Shakespeare’s multidimensional reinvention of the pre-existing ‘morality play’ genre, suggesting a temporality where the idea of ‘individual’ is entangled with the imagination of the collective faith in supernatural forces as tools of destiny and justice, and questioning the limits of ‘divine rights’ and ‘monarch individual’. The presentation would be a speculation to look into cinematic adaptations of Macbeth, especially Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Throne of Blood’, examining whether and how they transcend the secular modern periphery of the placement of the narrative towards a lost sensibility of pre-secular time through articulations of certain cinematic affects.

Anirban Bhattacharya (Actor, Singer, and Director of Bengali webseries Mandaar)
Macbeth within the wheels of modern times
I have lived with the thought of adapting *Macbeth* for a long time, drawn not by its political or social relevance but by the timeless elements of Shakespeare’s plays. Initially, an image came to mind… a fish caught at the end of a spear. Setting it in India, with Macbeth as Mandaar, I knew crucial elements like societal outcasts, language, and cultural nuances would be woven into the narrative from the start. Mandaar’s sexual dysfunction became part of his devastating pursuit of power. To convincingly recreate the supernatural elements, I employed a phantasmal look to break free from logic and immerse the viewer in the subversion. This journey of reimagining Shakespeare’s magic for our times is what I’m eager to share.

Jill Navarre (Playwright, Screenwriter, Artistic Director of Auroville Theatre Group)
Shakespeare as a Drug : My 7 Bouts with Addiction
Having directed seven Shakespeare plays, I’m currently immersed in my eighth: Macbeth. Among my productions are classics from Romeo and Juliet to King Lear and Hamlet. Sri Aurobindo calls Shakespeare “The great magician”, “a genius that transcends all laws … a miracle of poetic force.” What makes Shakespeare’s plays so seductive? For a director, the challenge of creating our world of the play holds a great reward. The real high is in rehearsing a Shakespeare play. Searching, finding, and then next time, finding again, discovery after discovery after discovery. There is no limit to the depth you can reach, rehearsing Shakespeare is like the limitless visions of a psychedelic trip. I’d like to share what alternative realities we have discovered during rehearsal and why Shakespeare continues to blow my mind.

Poonam Trivedi (Academic, Vice-chair of the Asian Shakespeare Association)
The Shakespearean Image on Page, Stage and Screen
If images hold an iconic place in Shakespeare’s plays, they are even more crucial in cinematic language, being the definitive structural unit of the visual medium of the cinema, with film being a string of consecutive images. While much has been written about the place and function of Shakespearean imagery, not enough critical attention has been devoted to how the same images constructed in words are translated into action in stage performance and how they are adapted into the multimodal space of the screen. Macbeth is considered the most imagistic of the Shakespearean tragedies and this presentation will examine some key images of the play and their transmutation in cinematic adaptations, Indian and Anglophone.

Paromita Chakravarti (Professor, Dept. of English at Jadavpur University)
Provincialising Macbeth in a Globalising India
Reading Paddayi, Veeram, Joji and Mandar
Even as Indian cinema is reaching global markets, and the choice of Shakespearean themes are often facilitating this process, the films themselves are often demonstrating an interest in the local in the choice of settings and storylines. The paper will examine some recent cinematic adaptations of Macbeth in regional languages like Veeram (2014), Paddayi (2018), Joji (2021) and Mandar (2021) to analyse the implications of this trend particularly in relation to changing constructions of gender and sexualities in a globalising India.

Abhaya Simha (Film director and screenwriter of Tulu film Paddayi)
Localising Macbeth: Shakespeare in a fishing town
All is not well in the fishing village. There is power, disruption, and transition. It’s Macbeth, after all. Yet, this time, the stars of the Tulu sky hover over Macbeth’s black and dark desires. But why reimagine Macbeth in modern times, in a small fishing town, and in a minority language facing possible oblivion? Can this very fear of oblivion add texture to a narrative of fading power? In my reimagining of Macbeth, there is Yakshagana, the folk theatre in Karnataka, itself dripping with centuries-old stories. There are fishermen riding traditional wooden fishing boats in football jerseys, with conversations on migration, jobs, happiness, and profits interwoven into the rhythms of life dictated by the sea. I’d like to discuss this very journey of reimagining Shakespeare or being reimagined through Shakespeare.

SCHEDULE:

Day 1 : 08th March 2024
20:00 – 21:00 IST | Dominique Goy-Blanquet
21:00 – 22:00 IST | Deb Kamal Ganguly

Day 2 : 09th March 2024
20:00 – 21:00 IST | Jill Navarre
21:00 – 22:00 IST | Poonam Trivedi
22:00 – 23:00 IST | Abhaya Simha

Day 3 : 10th March 2024
20:00 – 21:00 IST | Paromita Chakravarti
21:00 – 22:00 IST | Anirban Bhattacharya

Recommended Viewings for Participants :

Plays:
Macbeth (BBC4 Radio) Access Link
Macbeth (Royal Shakespeare Company) Access Link
Macbeth (Folger Theatre and Two River Theater Company) Access Link
Macbeth (Globe Theatre Performance) Access LInk
Macbeth (Mercury Acting Co. Radio) Access Link
Macbeth (Opera by Giuseppe Verdi) Access Link 1 / 2/ 3/ 4/ 5/ 6 / 7/ 8/ 9/ 10/ 11/ 12

CERTIFICATES:
Certificates of participation will be issued to those who fill up this Certificate Issuance Form

QUERIES:
For queries, if any, please write to: studycircles@aurovillefilminstitute.com
or message +91 9769976898 (Whatsapp and Telegram only)

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Macbeth in Spotlight

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