Priyadershini S., The Hindu

April 20, 2014

Peopled by heroes, villains and quixotic characters the world of William Shakespeare caught the heart and mind of a young Madhav Sharma four decades ago. His passion for the bard grew as he toured India and the Far East with Geoffrey Kendal’s drama company, Shakespeareana, playing different characters. So smitten was the budding actor that he left India for England to see the home of Shakespeare. Madhav straddles the three worlds of India, England and Shakespeare seamlessly. For one who began his dream journey in India moving on to the heart of theatre, London and working with top drama companies and directors, he has seen it all. He has to his credit distinctive work in theatre, films, television and radio. His title role in Hamlet, directed by Joseph O’Connor is one of his memorable performances among many others. Some of his films are Entrapment, The Awakening and East is East. His radio plays include Midnight’s Children. He has done extensive work with audio books. He is currently working on a film on the Jews of Kochi.

Being an Indian on English stage, tell us about your tryst with accents.

I started training with the Kendals. My first production was with Shashi Kapoor in 1960. I did voice training exercises with Laura Liddell and the teacher at RADA, Clifford Turner, found me way ahead of the others. He said I did not have regional accents getting in the way. Those days it was called Standard English where you tried not to show which region you came from. Now it is called received accent, it is a political term. The imagination helps you create accents. I have never had problem with accents.

One of the marvellous things about Shakespeare is no matter what accent you play it in or where it is set it works. […continued]

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