Macbeth in Therukoothu form evokes a visceral experience

The performance at the Alliance Francaise by a city-based troupe Thalai-k-Kol, managed to infuse a sense of novelty to a well-known play through an engaging mix of animated performance, light effects and a live score

In its Therukoothu version, a Shakespeare classic evoked a theatrical experience that was at once visceral and refreshingly unique.

‘Macbeth’, presented in Therukoothu form recently at the Alliance Francaise by city-based troupe Thalai-k-Kol, managed to infuse a sense of novelty to a well-known play through an engaging mix of animated performance, light effects and a live score.

The play, which allies traits of Therukoothu performance with elements of modern dramaturgy, begins in explosive fashion, with a medieval Scotland battleground scene where a victorious Macbeth is returning along with his aide Banquo. Here, the duo encounter the three witches who prophesied his destiny to be king.

The enactment devotes some detail to a few pivotal scenes that are still a reference point for scholarly analysis of power-lust, politics and psychological manipulation, and their invariably tragic consequences. Particularly riveting is the build-up to the regicide where a scheming Lady Macbeth works on the mind of her husband.

The killings do not stop, as each murder leads to another until Macbeth has turned full-blown paranoid. There were a few scenes, including the depiction of Lady Macbeth’s descent into insanity, that showcased the best of the Therukoothu histrionic tradition.

One of the standout scenes as far is the depiction of the army of vengeance-vowing opponents who use the Birnam boughs as camouflage to reach Macbeth’s castle, a fulfilment of one of the two prophesies that Macbeth would rule until the time Birnam wood moves to Dunsinane Hill. The augury that he can never be killed by ‘anyone of woman born’ would be reconciled when the slaying is carried out by Macduff who was birthed in Caesarian section.