Mumbai to witness musical pantomime version of Shakespeare's play The Tempest

Its a story of good vs evil Two brothers mdash the decentalways busy Prospero the Duke of Milan and an ambitious and unscrupulous Antonio Manipulating the kingrsquos weak character Antonio orders Prosperorsquos ouster and becomes the Duke himself Fate intervenes and the story shifts to an island populated by an evil witch Sycorax a spirit called Ariel and Caliban a creature from the underground Prospero and his daughter Miranda live on the island by enslaving Ariel and banishing the witch Sixteen years later using magical powers Prospero creates a storm to drown a ship carrying the weak king his son Ferdinand and the evil Antonio The spirit guides them onto the island where romance blooms between Miranda and Ferdinand the king sees the brothers for who they are With the wrongdoers forgiven the ship returns to Milan with Ferdinand crowned as the king and Miranda his queenA scene from the musical pantomime play The Tempest which returns to the city after two years after a panIndia runWith the trappings of a Bollywood potboiler this is the plot of William Shakespearersquos play The Tempest which also features Bardpenned memorable quotes including lsquoHell is empty and all the devils are herersquoA scene from an earlier staging of The TempestHowever on January 30 during an hourand10minute long staging of the play at a Bandra auditorium the audience wonrsquot hear the cast utter a single dialogue Instead theyrsquoll witness the entire storyline through pantomime accompanied by Broadwaystyle light and sound spectacle ldquoReferring to the art of mime as practised by French actor Marcel Marceau pantomime is a type of musical comedy stage production that uses facial expressions body language music and dance to narrate a storyrdquo shares the famous actorcomedian K Paintal who has directed the playThe cast at a rehearsal earlier this week PicSayed Sameer AbediPresented by Helen OrsquoGrady International the cast comprises 22 members actors and dancers who are students from various city colleges trained under the speech and drama institutersquos Youth Theatre segment The performance will mark the playrsquos return to Mumbai after two years ldquoWhen you think of Shakespeare you think of oratory and words However we wanted to break the language barrier and make his plays more accessible across India Thatrsquos why we thought of presenting it in a pantomime format Wersquove travelled to Goa Nagpur Chandigarh Pune and Amritsar and the response has been amazing The play has been appreciated by every age group across languagesrdquo shares Nutan Raj VP training at the institute who has also mapped Tamil Nadu Delhi and Rajasthan as the next stopsThe Tempest connectAccording to Paintal the diversity of characters makes the play particularly suitable for a pantomime ldquoUnlike many of Shakespearersquos other plays the characters of The Tempest can be portrayed most effectively by suggestions in costume and body languagerdquo he says For instance the leading lady Miranda will be seen in earthy greens depicting she is a child of the forest while Ariel as the spirit of the air is decked in white Caliban adorns rust brownsThe makers also had to rearrange the storyline using the flashback technique to ensure that the audience follows the plot ldquoThe story is written on a large canvas and covers a span of 20 years It was not simple to encompass all of it for the stage We are happy that this has been achieved through fascinating visuals lights and effectsrdquo shares Arpita Mittal CEO of the instituteCast a mime netWhile throw of voice is an important factor taken into consideration when casting for regular productions here the makers picked actors based on their body language ldquoIn regular staging at times dialogues tend to cover up for less than perfect body language but in mime each action has to be highlighted or else the audience would not follow the sequence Being a renowned mime artiste Paintal along with trainers from Helen OrsquoGrady held intensive workshops for a month for the cast to perfect their body language and facial expressions Post that the rehearsals went on for four monthsrdquo informs MittalDelving into the nature of the workshops 25yearold actor Vikas Baid who plays the lead character Prospero says ldquoFirstly we had to understand our body vocabulary and ensure that both mind and movements are coordinated and balanced well We started with basic body movements and emoting them without uttering a word For instance how my character stands sits walks talks eats drinks etc This brought clarity into our performancesrdquoA musical highTo depict the highs and lows in the plot composing a powerful musical score was essential to make up for the lack of dialogue admits Mittal ldquoUsing artistic freedom we have used the verse lsquoNow my charms are all orsquoerthrownhelliprsquo in the form of a song to show Prosperorsquos helplessness when he lands on the island after the banishment Another verse in the climax uses Shakespearersquos famous words lsquoWe are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with a sleeprsquordquo she sums upOn January 30 7 pm At Rangsharda Auditorium Bandra Reclamation Bandra WLog on to bookmyshowcom