A HINDOO THEATRE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2421, 9 January 1882, Page 4

A HINDOO THEATRE.

[" The Era."J A writer in a recent number of " Maomillan " gives an interesting account of the performance of Shakespeare's "Oymbeline" in a Hindoo theatre. Shakespeare is literally going round the world, for if the works of the groat national poet are not heard so frequently in England as they used to be in what were called "the palmy days of the drama " in tbe United States, in Germany, in France, Italy, and other European states, and always in the colonies, Shakespeare is constantly being played. We have heard that a version of one of his works was recently given in Japan, but until the article appeared in "Maomillan" we confess we were not aware that excellent versions of some of Shakespeare's tragedies are frequently represented in Hindoo theatres. The particular playhouse referred to was at Baroda, where great festivities were going on, the oooasion being a celebration of a Boyol marriage. But, to the Englishman who described it, the most interesting item was, of course, the performance of "Oymbeline." The Theatre was a temporary affair, constructed of bamboo poles and e&nvas, something after the pattern of the rustic caravans where in our youth we have witnessed the terrible tragedies wbioh Bichardson used to present to his patrons, lasting only twenty minutes, yet full of horrors, ghosts, murders, blue fire, and other attractions likely to stimulate the rostio mind. The stage of this Hindoo Theatre was more primitive even than JJthe auditorium. It was merely a sandbank, which to make it more effective was whitewashed. This stage was raised about 3ft above the audience portion, and was about 20ft wide and 40ft deep. There was an act drop, on whioh was painted a tremendous representation of a battle between on elephant and a tiger, in which it was impossible to say who would be the victor elephant or tiger. The proscenium was embellished with awful portraits of three-headed Indian gods and mythical heroes in the strangest costumes. There were footlights, and rather brilliant ones, no less than twenty lamps burning kerosene, and giving ample illumination to the stage and the performers. The seats were all on the same inolined plane, the front seats being the moat aristocratic. There were scarcely any ladies present, only men and children. There was a playbill printed in the xative tongne, and we may note a peouliar bit of information gleaned from this document. At the foot of the bill was printed a notice, the English of which was—" Respectable ladies, four annas admission ; ladies ' not' respectable, eight annas." Here we have an altogether novel plan adopted to keep the feminine portion of the audience "respectable " in charging thoie of doubtful reputation double prices. But the question next arises who was to decide the difficult problem of respectability. We can only suppose that there were oven in Baroda some ladles whose antecedents were doubtful, and it was felt desirable to keep them at arm's length. These bills (no charge for programme) contained a full outline of the plot, except that the names of persons and places and literary allusions were Indianised, tbe adapter having closely followed his English original. The anaohronism of having modern Italians in ancient Borne is got rid of by the cities being made fictitious. Britain has become Suvarnapuri (Golden City), and Italy Yijaipura (Land of Fame). The chief oharaoters are named Imogen, Tara—lmogen's assumed name, Fidele, u literally rendered Viahvaarao (Faithful) j Oymbeline, Sambhaji; Q-uiderius, Shivaji ; Arviragus, Bajaramj Belarius, Malharrao ; Cloten, Murarao ; Posthumus, Hambirrao; laohimo, Khanduji; and Piaanio, Sadoba. The company's repertoire inoluded versions of the "Comedy of Errors," " Taming of the Shrew," " Tempest, " and " Othello, " besides the " Shakuntala " and other Sanskrit dramas. The spectators had no reason to oomplain of not getting their full money's worth, as the performance lasted for five hoars and three quarters ! —9.10 p.m. until 2.55 next morning. At ten minutes past nine the manager of tbe oompany (the leader of the ohorus, in "Marathi Sutradhar—Gorypbacua) two other singers, a couple of musicians playing a "satar" (oithra), and a tabla (tabor, tom-tom) came before the curtain, and the overture—a hymn to the god Naroyen that the play might be successful—began. The manager led the ohorio musio, on excruciating performance, to my profane ears sounding most like an unavailing attempt to ■mother the squeals of two babies with the din of a bagpipe and a tin kettle. There was no little chaff and badgering between the audienoe and the actors, who introduced little interludes of their own. The clown (grotesquely attired in red), and trioked with leaves, waddled in and mimicked the hymn of the ohorus. The manager remonstrated, and some laughter provoking ohaff, after the manner of Oirouses, ensued. The hymn was resumed, the curtain rose, and revealed the

god Ganpati, a vermillion faoed, elephant trunked monater, with gold turban, blaa and gold tunio, and white legs, seated on a very terrestrial looking, cane bottomed chair, in front of an Indian home. Ganpati direotod the manager to aing in praiio of Sarasvati (goddesa of learning and the arts), and after the song a flash of stage lightning announced the aoooptanceJlof the prayer. Sarasvati, dressed in gold brooade, a peacock's head and neck projecting from hor girdle, the tailfeathers fastened to her shoulders, and displayed in fan shape above her head, next appeared ; on har head a golden mitre, and kerohiefa waving in either hand, like wings. The goddess danced a swift spasmodic hornpipe and vanished. The ohorus struck up a hymn to the gods, and the prologue was ovor (10 5 p.m.) Thus, as amongßt other Aryan cations, the religioUß origin of the drama is indicated. This overture, traditional from the earliest times, and slightly varied sometimes by the introduction of the Sutradbar's wife, is the indispensable preliminary to an Indian theatrical performance. The play proper now began. As " Tara " is a olose translation from " Cymbeline," description of the plot is unnecessary, but it is worthy of remark that the Hindoo adapter had followed Shakespeare throughout. The departures only from the original need hero be noted. There was one striking resemblance to the drama of Shakespeare's own time, and the Imogen of Shakespeare's day—all the female parts were acted by boys. It would have been diffioult for any aotress to have played with more womanly feeling, or with a sadder and more pathetic voice than did the male representatives of the heroine. The beautiful soenes of Shakespeare produced a deep impression upon the Hindoo spectators. They seemed greatly affeoted in the cave scene, where Imogen was seon lying apparently dead. Pew of the audience could refrain from tears, and one grand old Bajah oould not repress his feelings, but sobbed outright. Tho soene itself is a pathetic one, but the youthful aotor acquitted himself so well as to give it the greatest reality and power. The adapter rather burlesqued the oharaoter of the King, making him a regular henpecked husband, whioh may Beem strange to the European reader; but from the laughter of the audienoe it was evident that a henpeoked husband was as common at Baroda as elsewhere. The port of Oloten was made more grotesque than in tbe original, especially representing him as an absurd stutterer. The aotor made so muoh of this that the audienoe roared. When the mnsioian in aot the third is requested to sing " a very oxcellont good conoeited thing," Oloten gave most absurd directions to tbe musicians, and the fight between him and Guiderius was as oomio as anything in a London burlesque. The combatants slapped eaoh other in the rear with their swords in most grotesque 'fashion. The Hindoo spectators, seemed rather astonished and evsn alarmed at the love-making between Imogen and Posthumus. Hindoo wives do not rush to embrace their husbands, but veil their faces when their " good man" approaches. One singular peculiarity was the absence of gesture. They did not " suit the aotion to the word," but refrained almost entirely from aotion. As Hindoos—and, indeed, the Indians generally —do not usually sit upon ohairs, they always appeared uncomfortable when they did so, and there was very little of regal state even in the manners of the Queen. The English spectator of the play remarked also that in the tones and cadences the Hindoo aoters frequently gave muoh the same effect as would be given by a company of English aotors and aotresses. The players seemed to bo most at ease when standing ereot and motionless. They used very little gesture, their aotion being declamatory rather than demonstrative. There was no ranting or raving, and even Posthumus, in bis most infuriated tirades, maintained oomplete repose of body. The defeot of gesture was hardly compensated for by the very artistio groupings of the characters in eaoh soene, and the by-play was not alwaya sufficiently distinot. As on the Elizabethan stage, the scenery and stage accessories were of the simplest description, but the costumes were extremely rioh and beautiful. Two soenes, one the exterior of an Indian house, the other three palm trees to represent the forest, and half a dozen common ohairs completed the •took of " properties." The dresses, however, deserve description by the Court newsman's abler pen. The soene being laid in India, the costumes were strictly Oriental. Imogen wore the ordinary " full dress " of a Maratha lady —dark green sari with gold edges, golden armlets and earrings. Her faoe was fair as any English maiden's, and her cheeks bloomed with very oonspiouous rouge. Unfortunately, she had not taken the precaution of whitening her arms to matoh her faoe, and the oontrait was rather marked when she lifted her nutbrown hand, as she frequently had occasion to do, to adjust the cumbersome pearl ornaments whioh adorned her lily white nose. A dab of red paint on her forehead, and a large " bob" of blaok hair projecting from the back of her head, completed the pioture, The Rani (Queen) was similarly attired in a sari of gold tissue. Posthumus wore a red velvet jacket and red turban, and laohimo was gorgeously arrayed in white and gold turban, and tunio of black velvet with gold embroidery. All the masculine oharaoters carried swords, and it was creditable to this Hindoo company that the services of the prompters were never required. There are pretty long speeches in " Oymbeline," but the performers were word perfeot. When the soene was supposed to represent the interior of a house, the performers wore no sandals on their feet. Speaking of the boys who represented the female oharaoters on the Elizabethan stage, Professor Dowden ("Shakespeare Primer," p. 10) says:—"A further refinement of art was demanded from these young actors when they were required to represent a girl who had assumed the disguise of male attire, as happens with Jessica and Portia, with Rosalind, with Imogen; it was necessary that they should at onoe pretend to be, and avoid becoming, that whioh they aotually were." This the boy who took the part of Tara achieved to perfection); his disguise as a boy looked exquisitely girlish, and his manner, timid yet collected, exactly conveyed the impression af Imogen, trembling with womanly fear, and yet nerved by the consciousness that an unguarded gesture meant betrayal of her secret. A few remarks may be made as to the costume of the heroine. Imogen's dress as Fidele oonaisted of a sleeveless jacket of dark green trimmed witb gold braid, above a red, gold embroidered kilt, loose yellow knee breeohes, and white atookings. Round the head a green soarf, spangled with gold, was wound like a turban, the ends covering the ears and hanging loosely down the shoulders. A slender sword oompleted the equipment. No better proof oould be given of the magical effect of Shakespeare's ideas than this representation in a Hindoo theatre.