Tragedy doesn’t always have to be a gut-wrenching, debilitating experience. It can also be a cathartic, liberating process of resurrection that apprises you with the grave realities, making you unassailable. The Curse of Hamlet proved just that for writer and director Rajneesh Gautam, who has constructed the premise reflecting upon his dark side built on the debris of many emotional tragedies, something that he keeps concealed for the most part. On occasions, he lets it out, just like he has with this play.
Taking English playwright William Shakespeare’s famous play Hamlet, Gautam has reimagined its characters to inquire about how somebody who has played the protagonist in a long-standing show run of the play, would feel if he couldn’t all of a sudden.
It’s a fictional story set is 1993. The iconic Abhigyan Theatre in Connaught Place has been presenting Hamlet for 25 years. Always performed by Sarveshwar Sharma, the founder of the theatre, the role is now being viewed as a slice of meat by his son Siddharth. “I explore the insecurities, the dilemmas, and the begrudging from both sides. How can Sarveshwar give up power over a character he has become obsessed with, and how for Siddharth it has become a matter of pride to prove to his father that he too can play it well, perhaps even better,” says Gautam.
Gautam didn’t have to look far for inspiration. A peek into his darkness was enough to see the light of inspiration for this theatre endeavour. Sarveshwar is not too different from Gautam. Both have felt intoxicated with something they viewed their own. “In my case, it was the character of a paedophile I was playing in one of my earlier plays. The character consumed me to the extent that I started feeling scared of myself. I couldn’t separate the character from reality, nor was I willing to give it up for anything, something similar to Sarveshwar,” he says.
Today, Gautam taps into his vulnerabilities to rummage through fragile moments from his past and face them through his plays, one such being the story of Sarveshwar. But he doesn’t hide behind the character. He lets everybody peer at him as a statement of acceptance.
The Curse of Hamlet: Today at 5 pm, Akshara Theatre, 11B, Baba Kharak Singh Marg.
In a nutshell
Taking English playwright William Shakespeare’s famous play Hamlet, Gautam has reimagined its characters was to drive home inquire about how somebody who has played the protagonist in a long-standing show run, would feel if he couldn’t all of a sudden.