What is the make up requirement for the characters ‘Rama’ and ‘Ravana’ in a Kathakali performance---The Ramayana by R. K. Narayan?
What is the make up requirement for the characters ‘Rama’ and ‘Ravana’ in a Kathakali performance---The Ramayana by R. K. Narayan?
‘The Ramayana’ is considered as one of the great Hindu (Indian) epics of the fourth century BC that uses the performance style of the traditional Indian dance drama—Kathakali. Kathakali (literally, ‘story play’) is a type of total theatre, which is described as dance-drama. It performs dramatized stories in the form of combining dance, acting and music. Actors never speak on stage, as the text is present by the onstage vocalists. Therefore their body movements, hand gestures and facial expressions are always important. With facial gestures, the actor must be able to manipulate their facial muscles in order to effectively portraying their role. Their face articulation is enhanced by the ornate and symbolized makeup. Thus, a company, who wishes to perform ‘The Ramayana’ in a Kathakali style should understand the makeup requirements as its uniqueness and symbolism ‘transforms the actors into a wide variety of idealized and archetypal character types’ . Hence, it is crucial to obtain research of this specific element of Kathakali.
‘The Ramayana’ portrays a prince who sacrifices himself to defeat the evil in the world, and depicts the concept of ‘order vs. chaos’, where ‘order’ is promoted by god and ‘chaos’ is caused by demons. The two ideal representatives of god and demons in ‘The Ramayana’ are Rama and Ravana, which both are ‘unnatural’ characters. Yet, the complexity of the make up presented by Kathakali actors can allow audience to have a realistic touch of the unearthly characters. In the following, I will be focusing on Rama and Ravana’s makeup requirements.
Kathakali make up, is peculiarly native to the Kerala (south west region of India) folk art. Once the actor put on the makeup that represents his character, they are no longer themselves, they have assumed the life of the character they are playing . Generally the
‘The Ramayana’ is considered as one of the great Hindu (Indian) epics of the fourth century BC that uses the performance style of the traditional Indian dance drama—Kathakali. Kathakali (literally, ‘story play’) is a type of total theatre, which is described as dance-drama. It performs dramatized stories in the form of combining dance, acting and music. Actors never speak on stage, as the text is present by the onstage vocalists. Therefore their body movements, hand gestures and facial expressions are always important. With facial gestures, the actor must be able to manipulate their facial muscles in order to effectively portraying their role. Their face articulation is enhanced by the ornate and symbolized makeup. Thus, a company, who wishes to perform ‘The Ramayana’ in a Kathakali style should understand the makeup requirements as its uniqueness and symbolism ‘transforms the actors into a wide variety of idealized and archetypal character types’ . Hence, it is crucial to obtain research of this specific element of Kathakali.
‘The Ramayana’ portrays a prince who sacrifices himself to defeat the evil in the world, and depicts the concept of ‘order vs. chaos’, where ‘order’ is promoted by god and ‘chaos’ is caused by demons. The two ideal representatives of god and demons in ‘The Ramayana’ are Rama and Ravana, which both are ‘unnatural’ characters. Yet, the complexity of the make up presented by Kathakali actors can allow audience to have a realistic touch of the unearthly characters. In the following, I will be focusing on Rama and Ravana’s makeup requirements.
Kathakali make up, is peculiarly native to the Kerala (south west region of India) folk art. Once the actor put on the makeup that represents his character, they are no longer themselves, they have assumed the life of the character they are playing . Generally the
Bibliography: 1. Gayanacharya Avinash C. Pandeya “The Art of Kathakali” Publisher: Kitabistan, Allahabad (India), 1961 “The Art of Kathakali” is first published in 1943, and the version that I read is the second edition, which is published in 1961 3. Reginald Massy “India’s Dance” Publisher: Abhinav Publications (India), 2004 Reginald Massey has written on the culture, music, religious and dance of India in different papers, for example, The times, The Guardian and The Dancing Times of London Online Sources 5. Video by Kerala Tourism of the process of Kathakali Make-up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu5pGb_fpE8&feature=player_embeddedLast visited: April 1st, 2013 http://library.thinkquest.org/C006203/cgi-bin/stories.cgi?article=mc§ion=dance/classical/kathakali&frame=parent Last Visit: March 21st, 2013 Figure 1, Viṣṇu mark on Pacca characters, by Kerala Fine Arts Society http://keralafinearts.org/images/kathakali.jpg March 21st, 2013 Figure 2, Pacca character full makeup, by Minimus Cloe http://minimuscbe.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/kathakali2.jpg March 21st, 2013 Figure 3, Rama’s makeup with crown, by Dmitry Rukhlenko http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I000062tA4QPT0Lk/s/650/DR-090909-3035.jpg March 21st, 2013