Different Othello(s) and Contentious Spectators : Changing Responses in India
Part of : Γράμμα : περιοδικό θεωρίας και κριτικής ; Vol.15, No.1, 2007, pages 155-174
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155-174
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This essay examines audience responses and critical debates on productions/representations of Othello in India at four key moments: the 1848production of Othello in Calcutta, the fictionalized representation ofOthello in Shakespeare Wallah (1965), Othello produced in the Kathakalistyle of dance-drama (1996) and the first Bollywood adaptation ofOthello, Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara (2006). The changing, contradictory, andcontentious (fictionalized and real) reactions to these varied performancesdemonstrate the mediations of racial, social, economic, linguistic,class, caste and gendered differences that inform and shape the complexrelationship of spectators and critics to Shakespeare. Such multiple responsesdisrupt the ongoing myth about the authority, “timelessness,”and “universality” accorded to Shakespeare, a myth specially kept alivethrough educational institutions and through an imaginary constructionof Indian audiences’ love for Shakespeare.
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Shakespeare, audience, theater, India, Othello
