Opening statement:-
Entertainer!
"The Tempest" by William Shakespeare was nothing, but an absolute entertainer. Madurai's English department of Thiagarajar College has staged its 5th such Public College English play. The seed of the drama club, sowed by Dr. Subhathra Devi and Professor Arun with fellow colleagues and supporters has now become a majestic tree. Both the managing directors of our literature Companies; Literpretation LLP and PEPAC Theatre Company, are proud to write that we are the disciples and proud alumni of Thiagarajar College. It was a pleasure to walk in and see our youngsters walk and enact the way; we did a few years back on the stage.
The play:-
"The Tempest" by Shakespeare was brought alive in the month of April 2022, 412 years later by The Stage sculptors of Thiagarajar College, Madurai, in the direction of Mr. Joseph Bezaleel, and Ms. Smiruthi under the leadership of Dr. Subhathra Devi, Head of the Department of English and Dr. Pandiyaraja, Principal of Thiagarajar College, Madurai.
The play began with a thunderous storm with an unbelievable wooden boat that was installed on the very stage to make the scene as real as it could get. One of the actors of PEPAC Theatre Company, Shanmuga Priyan, who enacted as "Doctor", in “The Fall of King Lear” by PEPAC Theatre Company that was staged at Madurai Kamaraj University also played a part in the play. Doctor, from King Lear, by nature, is a very calm and modest character when it comes to the tone and composition, and on the other hand, we have the “Caliban”, who is an absolute giant. The performance that he and his second cast did in here as “Calibans”, were ferocious and scary. Especially, the realistic costume of Caliban, the infected hand to show his fate, was beyond superficial. All the actors did their part well, and the backstage team ran smoothly. The role of Ariel was spellbinding. According to the scenes, there were countable backdrops where the team had painted a few backgrounds of mystical illusions. Apart from that, the off-stage team was huge in number, to support and assist the actors with their essentials and for controlling the screens behind the scene.
Now, to talk about the very minimal number of "flaws", which occurred at random places, where it could have been better, including the audio system, curtain pull through, and the lights. The curtain pull-through wasn't as smooth as it used to be during our times as actors, and also, the lighting and the audio could have been used better in terms of usage. At times the actors did shout, which awakened our seventh sense. The loud sound did become a barrier for the audience to understand the dialogue better. The fact was significant, that the lights were brought in numbers, and it was not delicate scenery for us as an artist to see few of the lights being off at times, and only a few being used as a focus. Otherwise, the acting, and the little gestures by the actors to signify and to make the “Indian audience” laugh, giggle and understand the scene were a success. The PR team’s achievement of bringing in more than 4000 audiences from schools and colleges is commendable. Altogether, the team had won in making the audience enjoy their time at the College.
Star Rating ★★★★ out of ★★★★★