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Desdemona Roopakam
A Concert Theatre Piece
Artists
Desdemona Roopakam is a concert theatre piece that examines feminist narratives within Shakespeare’s Othello and traditional Indian mythologies.
Directed by Abhishek Majumdar and performed by acclaimed musicians MD Pallavi and Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy, the play is composed of Hindustani, Carnatic and folk music. The sound design of the play is by one of India’s foremost live sound artists, Nikhil Nagaraj.
The performance text is a combination of musical score, spoken word poetry and dramatic scene. It has been co-written by MD Pallavi, Bindhu Malini, Veena Appiah, Abhishek Majumdar, Irawati Karnik and also comprises of the original text of Shakespeare’s Othello. The play also comprises of poetry by Tishani Doshi. The performance uses multiple forms such as Yakshagana, Harikatha, YellamanaaTa and contemporary idioms to tell the story.
Desdemona Roopakam questions the absence of female voices that could have provided a deeper insight into the life of Desdemona and thereby challenging the erasure of any resistance from Desdemona as she is killed by Othello.
The play in it’s elaboration of traditional Indian myth examines the differences of register and agency that women have had in important narratives about them.
Cast & Credits:
Direction and Scenography : Abhishek Majumdar
Devised and written by: Irawati Karnik, Abhishek Majumdar, MD Pallavi, Veena Appiah, Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy, Nikhil Nagaraj
Original Texts : William Shakespeare’s Othello and Tishani Doshi’s ‘ Girls are Coming Out of the Woods
Translations by : MD Pallavi, Bindhumalini and Aparna Chandar
Performed by: Pallavi MD, Bindhumalini , Nikhil Nagaraj
Sound Design: Nikhil Nagaraj
Light Design: Niranjan Gokhale
Make up: Ramakrishna NK
Producer : Veena Appiah
Production assistant: Sanjay Bharadwaj and Prajwal S
Set execution: Sridhar Murthy
Asst Scenography: Surabhi Vasisht
Costume execution – Vidya Masand
Dramaturgy: Irawati Karnik
Costume design: Arundhati Nag, Abhishek Majumdar
Supported by Ranga Shankara’s ‘Play the Play’ programme
Additional music : Praveen Rao
Photo and video: Virginia Rodrigues
Special thanks to Sharanya Ramprasad, Shilpa Mudbi, Poornima Kumar
Produced by Nalanda Arts Studio
Nalanda Arts Studio is a Bangalore based Arts organisation focussed on research, scholarship, training and practice of performing and fine Arts with a focus on collaborations between Asian, African and Middle Eastern artists and communities.
This play is supported by Ranga Shankara’s ‘Play the Play’ programme
Artists
Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy
Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy is a singer, composer. Bindhu has training in both Carnatic and Hindustani classical forms but has constantly strived to explore avenues outside of her strict classical roots to other forms and traditions in search of the pure soul stirring power that music has. This has given form to a more easy yet confident personal style for her as a performer. Suno Bhai is her first music album created in collaboration with Vedanth Bharadwaj. She directed music for feature and documentary films such as Harikatha Prasanaga, Nathicharami, Sethumaan, Brahmi, Conversations at the Kumbh, surey number zero and Coral woman. She and Vedanth co-directed music for Aruvi, a tamil film. Bindhumalini is part of collaborations like The Threshold, Khusrau ke rang, Akath Kahani and Saath-Saath.
She won the 66th National Award and Filmfare Award as Best Singer for the songs she created and sang in the film Nathicharami.
MD Pallavi
Pallavi MD is a singer, composer, actor, editor, sound designer and filmmaker. She has a degree in Hindustani classical music from Benares University. She has been performing Kannada poetry (bhavageethe) across Karnataka and abroad for the last twenty five years. She has won the META Best Actress award for her solo theatrical piece C Sharp C Blunt. She has won the State award for her song in the film Duniya, and the State Kempegowda award for her contribution in the field of music. She has acted in Girish Kasaravalli’s Gulabi Talkies and Prakash Belawadi’s Stumble- both National award winning films. ‘Playgrounds’ a short film she co-wrote and directed, won the best film award in the Hong Kong Film Festival and at IFFLA, Los Angeles. She has been awarded the prestigious Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for her contribution to the field of Bhav Sangeet. She is keen on collaborating with multidisciplinary artists.
Abhishek Majumdar
Abhishek Majumdar is a playwright, theatre director and scenographer . Currently he is the artistic director of Nalanda Arts Studio Bangalore which is a collaborative arts company based out of Bangalore and Visiting Associate Professor at New York University in Abu Dhabi. He is currently developing new work for Nalanda Arts Studio Bangalore , Somuho Kolkata, Royal Court Theatre London , Bloomsbury London , Tibet Theatre , PlayCo New York , New York University Abu Dhabi Arts Center amongst other places. His work has been translated to multiple languages including English, French, Spanish, Kashmiri, Czech, Tibetan , to name a few. In 2021 he has been awarded one of the five ‘ International Theatre Artist ‘ award by Playwright’s Realm New York.
