Bedevilled By Dukes

In other words, most Shakespearean Dukes have about the same personality as a cardboard backdrop. (In fact, in one production of Midsummer Night's Dream, the Duke was played by a papier-mache figure with a voiceover.)

Denzel Washington ran into that problem when he took the part of the Duke in Kenneth Branagh's celluloid Much Ado About Nothing. His role required him to display all the expression one would expect of a Communist-era statue exhorting Russian workers to increase production levels by another 10 per cent. In his defence, it must be said that he looked damn good in those tights.

 

The only Duke in The Collected Works to require more of actors than the ability to radiate benevolent authority drew the most ambivalent of all the comedies. Measure for Measure, like A Winter's Tale, is categorised by Shakespearean scholars as one of the problem plays, an admission, effectively, that it just doesn't fit.

In a recent production of the play, Arjun Raina, who essayed the role of the Duke, drew flak from critics uncomfortable with his performance. Directed by Royston Abel, Raina's performance drew a parallel with the murky world of Indian politics (the court wears formal Indian dress, and the Duke dons saffron garb on his incognito missions).

The actor also broke away from the traditional depiction of the Duke as elder statesman exercising his little grey cells. Instead, he came across as a sardonic schemer with the same menacing playfulness of a domino at the Venice Carnival. It may have been a flawed reading of Shakespeare, but it was one of the few Dukes whose vital signs were on overdrive.

In fact, the only other Duke in Indian theatre who made such an impact on his audience debuted at the Maidan in Calcutta last year. The play was a Bengali translation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, where the Duke actually has a lot to do in Act One.

In this case, nothing happened after his cue. Then after some shuffling in the wings, a cardboard tree edged on to the boards. Discernible in the upper branches was a talking head that proceeded to deliver the Duke's speeches, albeit in a slightly strained manner. The rest of the troupe manfully played on, ignoring the hooting from a team of boys who had abandoned their cricket match in favour of better entertainment.

It was too much for the director, who was playing Oberon. He dashed onstage, trying to remove the tree. The Duke dodged him and delivered the rest of his lines between fast laps of the stage. Unfortunately, he tripped and fell.

Oberon summarily plucked the scenery away, to reveal Calcutta's first experience of Shakespearean striptease. The hapless actor attempted to explain that he couldn't find his costume in the dressing room, but he was drowned out. In classic Shakespearean style, he exeunted right rapidly, pursued by the director, the cast, and the fledgling cricket team.