The clown's Lear: Actor Rajat Kapoor on his play Nothing Like Lear
Nothing Like Lear , a solo clown piece by actor-director Rajat Kapoor, strips William Shakespeares tragedy down to its emotional core. The play, first staged in 2012 and starring actor Vinay Pathak, has quietly built a long life of its own, travelling across cities, without losing its intimacy. As the duo gear up for their next show in the city, Kapoor speaks to CE on approaching King Lear through vulnerability and using the language of clowning to excavate themes of power, ageing, madness and fractured family bonds. Excerpts What pushed you create a solo piece like Nothing Like Lear with one clown expressing the emotions of a Shakespeare tragedy, and how has it evolved over the years? Nothing Like Lear has now been running for 13 years. After working on Hamlet, The Clown Prince , we wanted to do something with Lear. But to make it different, we decided to do it with just one actor and see what emerges from there. The audience has shaped the play through its interactivity. A responsive crowd can change the energy. In terms of evolution, it has shifted only about three per cent. The rest of the structure remains exactly as it was. Small improvisations have crept in, little textures that come from performing it over the years. But at its core, the play is still close to the version we began with. When you adapt classics, how do you decide what to keep from the original and what to change, so it feels meaningful in todays time? We go back to the classic and ask: Why do we want to do this play? What is it that attracts us to it? You dont want to lose the instinct. Im not very interested in the plot, because that belongs to 400 years ago. What interests me are the core themes. When we began rehearsing King Lear , we asked ourselves what the play was really about: old age, fathers and daughters, the loss of power, blindness, madness. Thats where we started building it. Once you engage with those ideas, you see how relevant they still are. Vinay Pathak How did your early days with Chingari (theatre group in Delhi) shape the way you tell stories today? That was 40 years ago, and you are certainly not the same person. One learns and hopefully brings that growth into ones craft, though those early influences never quite leave you. Chingari was an offshoot of Thtre de Poche at the Alliance Franaise in Delhi, which meant French literature and theatre were strong early influences. Funnily, my first introduction to world theatre came through the Theatre of the Absurd and existential drama. Waiting for Godot , Ionesco, Sartre, Camus, Jean Genet were big people for us. Somehow, that idea of the absurd remained with me to an extent. You often work with clowns in your plays. What does this form allow you to explore that traditional theatre doesnt? Clowns allow for distance. Take Hamlet , for instance. A clown might deliver a Hamlet soliloquy and then step out of character to question it: Why does Hamlet behave the way he does? Why does he treat Ophelia so badly, even calling out the absurdity of his choices? It questions the play from within it, and judges it even while performing and creates a critical distance. What makes actor Vinay Pathak the right person to carry a play as vulnerable and demanding as Nothing Like Lear? I wouldnt do a play without him! In fact, I havent worked without him for the last 25 years. Its the energy Vinay brings to the group, the rehearsal room, the theatre itself. In many ways, hes the fuel that keeps our theatre company going. Youre bringing the show to Bengaluru Theatre Festival this year. What does performing here mean to you? Bengaluru has quite simply, one of the best audiences in the country. It comes from the citys young population, who are curious, literate and deeply engaged. We come here a couple of times a year with different productions, in different auditoria, and every single time the response is extraordinary. They understand what theyre watching and that kind of attention is invaluable for theatre. Whats your take on AI slowly creeping into writing, visuals and even performance? People in the creative field are safe. AI can write, but then everybody can too. When writing becomes accessible to all, there will still be a need for someone who can write better, and that will not be AI. What makes a writer stand out is precisely that he isnt everybody else.
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