Dramatist adapts Shakespeare’s play for ‘Saang’ promotion

Deepender Deswal

Rustic performances on Haryanvi folklore with catchy dialogues and hilarious acting on stage, popularly known as Haryanvi ‘Saang’, seem to be losing their appeal among people. However, a Hisar-based artiste, Satish Kashyap, is trying to instill a new lease of life in this dying art.

He is a folk dramatist in Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University (HAU) and had appeared in Bollywood movies and television serials. He is adapting William Shakespeare’s play ‘Comedy of Errors’ for a Haryanvi ‘Saang’ titled “Ye Chhore Kamal Ke”. This adaption will have around 25 artistes who will perform on stage, sing as well as compose music in the background.

“I want to introduce the Haryanvi culture by way of ‘Saang’ or ‘Swang’ in the Edinburgh Theatre Festival held in England every year. I have got a proposal from the Edinburgh Theatre Festival authorities. ‘Swang’ having a duration of 90 to105 minutes will be performed in front of the festival authorities for submission in January next year. On selection, it will be featured in the next festival,” says Kashyap.

He says that Haryanvi ‘Swang’ is an Indian folk opera, which is about 400 years’ old and came into existence during the times of Guru Nanak and Kabir. It’s similar to the western opera culture. ‘Swang’ has no retake and rehearsals. Kashyap with his drama team (Swang Mandali) had presented an item in the Roskilde Theatre Festival in Denmark eight years ago. “It was an excellent experience when we performed Haryanvi ‘Swang’ “Jyani Chor” based on the theme of a thief, who is very clever and never shies away from taking on the high and the mighty. Our performance was appreciated by the international audience,” he adds.

Kashyap, a pass out from the National School of Drama, says that the length of ‘Swangs’ written by the likes of Pandit Lakhmi Chand, Mange Ram, Dhanpat and Baje Bhagat are of unmatched quality in terms of storytelling and dramatisation of the situation. These ‘Swangs’ are very lengthy and continue overnight, even for a couple of days. But the modern audience has no time. “Swang means an imitation with a mix of music and comedy. We have cut short the time of the Swang to 90 to 105 minutes, as per the international standard of drama, to be performed in the Proscenium theatre”.

He says that they had also performed a ‘Swang’ in the NSD and the Sangeet Natak Academy two years ago. They have performed around 150 shows in different places, including Haryana, Jammu, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Delhi.  

Kashyap along with co-artiste Sandhya Sharma, a professor of music in the HAU, has performed many ‘Swangs’, including “Raja Vikramaditya”, “Veer Barbreek” — a folktale from Mahabharata; “Keechak Draupadi”, “Padmavaat”, “Gopi Udhdhav” — a folktale of Lord Krishna; “Jyani Chor” — a hilarious folktale; “Shiv Parvati”, “Chanderkiran”, “Heer Ranja”, “Nautanki” etc.