Actor Guy Masterson’s solo show Shylock throws light on how Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice hinted at racial discrimination while Robert Softley Gale's play portrays life through the prism of the disabled. Divya Kaushik chats up with the directors
Who is Shylock to most of usIJ For some he is a Jewish moneylender and the principal antagonist from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice and for a few he is a ‘pure villain.’ But many of us may want to describe Shylock differently after watching the play Shylock by Gareth. ‘Was he the victim or villainIJ’ The play revolves around this basic question. Told through the story of Tubal, Shylock’s only ally in the Merchant of Venice, Gareth’s play delves deeper in the history to analyse the character, Shylock, and his portrayal by Shakespeare. Guy Masterson dons the role of Tubal on stage and narrates the story as perceived by the director.
Meet Robert Softley Gale, one of the best-known artistes globally who suffers from cerebral palsy. He crawls on stage to give the lowdown on his life and those of others with a disability in his play If These Spasms Could Speak. He takes us through dealing with his life, his growing up and intersperses this with the views of others. Frequently warm, often comic, it ends up being the most compelling piece of solo drama. In another play, Don’t Wake Me directed by Guy Slater, the audience will see popular actress Jaye Griffiths as a mother who is battling for the rights of her disabled son. Based on true events, the play is a story of severe disability — of battles won against all odds, of struggles, challenges — and the frustrations of being misunderstood.
These three plays are totally a one-man show. They are not monologues, they are stories narrated by single artistes. These plays will form a part of Going Solo by Teamwork Arts and will be staged in Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Mumbai.
Shylock
Guy Masterson, an actor who’s also a director, is in awe of Shylock’s director Gareth who could put facts in front of the audience in a way that doesn’t force them to form any opinion. Thought-provoking is the right word to describe the way the play Shylock presents the facts. Says Masterson, “What our play does is that it contextualises Shylock. We present him in the light of a lot of historical facts. The play extracts the character of Shylock out of the Merchant of Venice and puts him and his actions into context, from the origin of the plot to the origin of Jewish persecution. After understanding Shylock’s background, it becomes easier to get into the complexity of his situation in the play and his actions. looking at him in 2014 is very different than how he was viewed in 1608, when Shakespeare wrote the play. He was a comic villain. I think, it was the first time Shakespeare wrote the anti-racist play. Our production puts Shylock in the context of the history of Jews and what role they played in the Venetian economy. lending money was the only job that they were allowed to do.”
When Masterson was offered to do this play, he was thrilled as not many have looked at the story of Shylock through such a prism.
The play has received tremendous success wherever it has been showcased and the actor says that the reason is the universality of the subject. “Every region is facing some sort of racial discrimination. The beauty of most of Shakespeare’s plays is that they might have been written years ago, keeping in mind a very different social set up, but the issues that they touched upon hold relevance even today,” adds Masterson who came to India in 1996 with Animal Farm and Under Milk Wood and had wanted to return ever since. He is even open to collaborations from India. “I am always open to collaborate with like-minded people. I have presented works from all over the world at the Edinburgh Festival, so I will be very much open to do a project in India, if it is a right one. As a director I would want to pick up a subject which is truly Indian,” he adds.
If These Spasms Could Speak
This is his first one-man show and probably the closest to Robert Softley Gale’s heart. Robert is an established name in the Scottish arts scene and he creates work that challenges the audience while entertaining them. A lot of his work is about disability or human rights but usually this is addressed in an indirect way. If These Spasms Could Speak is a bouquet of individual narratives. Robert explains, “I think solo shows — particularly ones using direct address in the way that Spasms does — are very effective in engaging the audience. Much of my show plays with the idea of which parts are really ‘me’ and which parts are characters. By putting aside this idea of ‘acting’ or ‘pretending’ I hope to get audiences to engage with real people and real situations.
Writing a new piece is always challenging — the first draft of my script was two and a half hours long so I had to cut out a lot of the boring bits. It’s always difficult to know which parts of a play works and which doesn’t. You can only tell this when you put it in front of an audience.” Comic in parts, Robert’s play is a warm and moving one. Though many feel inspired after watching his play, he says that as an artist he didn’t intend to inspire. “I don’t make work with the intention of being inspirational — it feels quite egotistical to me if I were to say something like that. My main aim in writing the show was to give people a glimpse in to the everyday lives and experiences of disabled people — the good and the bad parts. However, I know that audience will take from the show what they want,” adds Robert, who will be coming to India for the first time to perform at the festival.
Robert’s theatre company Birds of Paradise is a force for change in Scottish theatre, creating world class projects and performances that place disabled artistes in the centre stage. He shares, “Our aim is to increase the representation of professional deaf and disabled performers in Scottish theatre. We want to lead a national debate on inclusive theatre practice and issues around deaf and disability. We try and create world class performances and projects that embody the aesthetics of access. We want to nurture the next generation of deaf and disabled performers.”
Don’t Wake Me
The play is written by Rahila Gupta, who calls it “fairly autobiographical.” She explains, “It is the story of life with my son who was starved of oxygen at birth which caused brain damage — also known as cerebral palsy. He was written off by the hospital, the school, friends, family and society. This charts our fight to reclaim his humanity. I lived in India for the first 19 years of my life. When the opportunity arose to take my work to India, I jumped at it. There is nothing so sweet as going back ‘home’ with work. My play is about disability and discrimination, a conversation that really needs to happen in India.”
The biggest challenge she faced was finding the producer for her play. “Ever since the failure of TS Eliot’s verse plays in British theatre, there is a prejudice that verse can’t work in the theatre. I hope this plays dispels that view. It was Guy’s
(the director of the play) belief in the work — partly because the story spoke to his own experience of disability — that was my first step on this long journey. I have seen more and more plays in verse now,” shares the writer.