Anuradha Kapoor all set for India-South Africa 'Othello' production

Who was Othello? How did he come to Europe? Did his ancestors come on a slave ship with sugar?

Theatre director Anuradha Kapur's latest project, which will materialize in 2023, is all about excavating Othello. She says while we know he was in Venice and Cyprus, the work delves into how he reached there and his relationship with the slave trade and sugar.

"This is an India-South Africa collaboration and we are trying to refract the figure of Othello, this person who travels and has notions of who is poor, and cross-cut histories," says the Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee theatre director.

The production will be in English and in more languages later from Africa as well as India.

"Many things will be cross-cutting and multiple tangents will be at play. It's a collective work being made with Deepan Sivaraman and a collaborative effort with Sumangala for the music and Ari Sitas for writing," adds the former Director of the National School of Drama (NSD) in the capital.

Known for her collaborations with artists from diverse fields (visual, video, and filmmakers), the director who has worked with the likes of Vivan Sundaram, Bhupen Khakhar, Madhusree Dutta, Nalini Malani and Nilima Sheikh, is one of the founding members of 'Vivadi', a working group of painters, musicians, writers and theatre practitioners.

Believing that one must go through improvisation, one must change till the very end, she adds: "It needs to be ascertained that there is a constant dialogue between forms exists at all times. It is only then that something truly unique emerges. Also, we must let go of our preconceived notions like 'this cannot work'. Whenever boundaries are blurred, it leads to interest."

The director, who will be co-curating the upcoming International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK) to be held from February 5-14, 2023 along with Deepan Sivaraman and B. Ananthakrishnan is particularly looking forward to the student productions. "It's also something that is a pedagogy festival with students, something that is of paramount importance. The diversity in the festival in terms of themes, presentation, and style is bound to make it an experience to look forward to," says the director, who is now a visiting professor at the School of Culture and Creative Expressions, Ambedkar University, Delhi.