Kathakali adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea held at Kerala Kalamandalam.
| Photo Credit: SPL
Kerala Kalamandalam recently witnessed a rare amalgamation of the East and West theatre cultures. In a novel project that completely restructured the centuries-old Kathakali grammar, a group of artists presented Ernest Hemingway’s Nobel Prize-winning novel The Old Man and The Sea describing it as “the morrow of Kathakali”. Kalamandalam Neeraj, who directed the performance, says: “We have confidence in creating an enthusiastic new generation of Kathakali viewers. Presently, Kathakali is restricted to select aficionados. The biggest challenge was balancing the authenticity of Kathakali with modern theatrical elements — expanding the performance space and incorporating innovative lighting techniques to engage the audience.” Even the presentation space was unique with a seating arrangement that involved the audience in the performance. Instead of the usual proscenium stage, the audience were seated at two ends with a spacious passage connecting the two acting as the stage. The narrative techniques and attire of Kathakali were used for the performance. The attempt was to adopt the dramatic and technical aspects of modern theatre to enrich the performance while sticking to the basic principles of the traditional style of Kathakali.Italian lead Famous Italian theatrician Mario Berzaghi, who is also an expert Kathakali artist, played the lead, Santiago. Mario is the director-cum-actor of the well-known Italian theatre group, ‘Teatro dell Albero’. The striking theme and the background of the novel provided an entirely new perspective which helped improve the stage strategies of the Kathakali performance. The great theatre possibilities the novel and its extraordinary global reputation had inspired the attempt, the crew said. 20 artistesThe Old Man and the Sea has just four major characters — Santiago the old man, the boy Manolin, the Sea, and the marlin, the giant fish. While Mario played Santiago, Peesappilly Rajeevan played the Sea. Students from the Kerala Kalamandalam took up other supporting roles. Including vocals and percussion, the production featured around 20 artistes. Published – February 16, 2025 08:30 pm IST