Chekhov? Indian!

Anyone remember this sketch from Goodness Gracious Me? Anyway, this post came about after I had to read Chekhov’s The Proposal (homework for school) and started thinking how Indian the whole thing was. Hypochondriacal bachelor. Self-pitying father. Ebullient daughter. Three ludicrous characters, all greedy, all ready to argue over nothing at the drop of a hat. Classic Indian domestic drama, and probably a lot more fun to watch than a lot of straight Chekhov (okay, massive generalisation, but the last I saw was Trevor Nunn’s The Seagull, which didn’t do much to convince me that old Anton is one of those great writers for all times). I googled “Indian Chekhov” to see what else was out there. Quite a lot of interesting comparisons between famous Indian directors and writers, as it happens. I really liked this blog post though, which suggests that the atmosphere of “clenched teeth compromise” that pervades India is distinctly Chekhovian.

Indian Shakespeare is another thing that interests me, and Jatinder Verma’s excellently-written article in the Guardian got me all excited about Tara Arts’ production of The Tempest. I missed it when they toured it the first time round, but fully intend to see now that it has returned to London.

And to (tenuously) continue the India/Western classics theme, The Stage reports that Parminder Nagra is going to star with Ray Winstone in an ITV adaptation of The Changeling. Potentially awesome.

 

Playing with Ideas

Just went to see Statement of Regret at the National, and I loved it. I’d read a few reviews that complained that it was a bit too overloaded with ideas. Well, it certainly demanded a high level of concentration, but that’s only because it’s dealing with big issues that are not often approached in the theatre (or at least, not at the National). I think that’s A Good Thing. And yes, it was about ideas, and the discussion of ideas, but it was also a great story, fizzing with bitchy putdowns and powerful outbursts, and full of personal conflicts to complement the debate.

I was reminded of a comment about Roy William’s Fallout on the Guardian theatre blog: “to simply describe it as a play about black-on-black gun crime is as stupidly reductive as describing Hamlet as a play about Dane-on-Dane violence.” The issue of how black people deal with the legacy of slavery was clearly an important theme in Statement of Regret, but it would have been a much weaker play if this was not tied in with a story about fathers and sons, and about men struggling with their own personal, familial heritage (there was a brillliant twist right towards the end which gave me one of those fantastic “Ooooooh, shit!” moments I normally associate with films like The Sixth Sense).

I also really liked the way that problems were often shown from contrasting perspectives. For example, the protagonist, Kwaku Mackenzie, is at one point criticised for choosing to take a “slave name” (Kwaku) to replace the one he was born with (Derek). Later on, it is revealed that one of his close friends has taken the opposite step: trading his African name for an English one in order to integrate into society more effectively.

This was my trip to the theatre in 2008, and it was good modern drama – extremely current, unafraid to pull its punches and buzzing with ideas that gave me plenty to think about on my way home (as did the programme, which was great value for £2). Shameless plug: Clifford Samuel is an ex-Guildhall student, and he’s very good!

I look forward to Kwame’s next show, Let There Be Love, on near me at the Tricycle in Kilburn, which he’s also directing, and which features Joseph Marcell (that’s Geoffrey from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air!)