Shakespeare in greasepaint: Macbeth finds a new voice in Hyderabad
Hyderabad: With clowns steering the narrative, actors shifting effortlessly between menace and mockery, and Shakespeare’s darkest tragedy reimagined through farce and circus-like theatrics, Rajat Kapoor’s Macbeth: What’s Done Is Done at Shilpakala Vedika, looked nothing like the Macbeth you read in school.
It isn’t often that Hyderabad gets to see Shakespeare with a smirk. The play began in mischief. Two clowns—Julio and Pedro—marched in, paint still fresh on their faces, jostling each other for control of the story. In Kapoor’s world, they are not just narrators but competing producers, slyly bending the plot to suit themselves. Their banter pulled the audience in, making the familiar plot of ambition, murder, and guilt feel strangely unpredictable.
“Macky B” and Lady Macbeth moved between high drama and farce, their exchanges sharpened by the presence of three actors at times playing Lady Macbeth together, circling Macbeth like shadows he couldn’t shake off. The stage was stripped to essentials—stark lights, painted faces, props that seemed borrowed from a travelling circus—keeping the focus firmly on the performers.
Kapoor’s cast—Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Mantra, Namit Das and others—swung easily from menace to mockery. The humour was deliberate, not to make fun of Shakespeare, but to tilt his tragedy so you saw the cracks differently.
Elsewhere in India, the play has won similar responses. In Nagpur, reviewers called it a “satirical adaptation that tickles funny bones” while keeping the sting of greed and betrayal intact. In Mumbai, critics lingered on the haunting visual of three Lady Macbeths and the precision of the ensemble in slipping between absurdity and horror without missing a beat.
For many in the Hyderabad audience, it was more than a night at the theatre. It was the return of large-scale, inventive stagecraft to the city, the kind that reminds you why classics survive—they can be torn apart, painted over, and still, when the lights dim, leave you leaning forward in your seat.
