The Alchemist : A theatrical Analysis.

The Alchemist is a novel written by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho which was
first published in 1988. It was originally written in Portuguese (O Alquimista).
It became an international bestseller which was translated into 80 languages.

At first Coelho was reluctant to sell right of his books. It was his thought that a
book has a life of its own inside the reader's mind and seldom did he found an
adaptation that lived up to the book. But with time, Coelho decided to sell the
right. The novel has film adaptation, graphic-novel adaptation. It has also
theatrical adaptation. Cornish Collective produced and performed a theatrical
adaptation of The Alchemist. That production was their most successful
production. It was staged for the first time in India by Ashvin Gidwani
Productions.

In Bangladesh, a theatrical adaptation of The Alchemist was produced by the

Department of Drama and Dramatics, Jahangirnagar University. It was directed
by Reza Arif (Associate Professor, Dept. of Drama and Dramatic, JU). The play
was performed at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in the 2 nd March. I am going
to analyze the theatrical aspects of the play directed by Reza Arif.

At first I want to talk about the art direction of the play. Art direction includes
make up, costume and props.

Make up: It was quite good. Especially the makeup of the Gypsy old lady
(interpreter of Santiago’s dream) was very impressive. Makeup of Alchemist
should be mentioned here. The makeup artist did a great job here.

Costume: The Setting of the play includes Spain and Northern Africa. The
director carefully designed the costumes. Santiago and the Gypsy old lady who
were in Spain wore western dress. When Santiago went to the Northern Africa,
we saw people wearing alkhilla, barkha, zubbah etc. As most of the people of
Morocco and Egypt are Muslims, the director was concerned with Middle
Eastern Islamic tradition in costume.

Props: This is very important element of theatre. Proper selection and

appropriate use of props can make a scene more acceptable to the audience.
Making of pyramid and sands through plexus cloth was a brilliant work. The
director made the sun by using rope. Besides he showed the time consumption
through the use of mirror. It was a praiseworthy work.

Now I will go to artistic direction of the play. There are several things in artistic
direction like lighting, stagecraft, backdrop, sound effect.

Lighting: When the group of travelers including Santiago were attacked be

robbers, there was red light on stage. At the time of oasis war, we saw red light
on stage. Actually red light indicates something bad. At the time of comic
scene, the light was too bright. It expressed the jolliness. When Santiago told
his dream to Gypsy old lady, there was blue light on stage. When Santiago’s
mind got appearance, the stage had blue light. May be the director tried to
express subconscious mind through the use of blue light.

Stagecraft: Director made the Tanjiar city placing some shops. When Santiago
and his group reached the oasis, we found some stage craft like palm tree and
well. There was a little use of stagecraft in this play.

Sound effect: The play was full of sound effect. In every time when
mysterious environment was created, director used sound effect. In comic
scene, sound effects were added. When the air and the sun appeared, it was
very important to add effect of sound and the director did so. One of the most
brilliantly used sound effects was in the scene where time was consumed
through mirror in a shop of Tanjiar. There, four months were consumed with
the help of fast- tempo sound effect.

Choreography: There were two kinds of choreography in this play. One is war
and the other one is dance. There were three scenes of dance. Choreography
was good. First two choreography remained festive atmosphere. But the last
one was very much different. When Santiago turned into air, a dance was
performed. It was a little bit gothic. The play had one war scene and it was
choreographed in a very organized way. The choreography was surprisingly
disciplined. Besides war was glorified through the dynamic choreography.

Music: Music played an important role in making the play more lively and
acceptable. Music directors used western, Arabic, Indian and even Chinese
music. They tried to make a collaboration of Western and Asian music. As most
of the scenes were set on Northern Africa (Morocco, Egypt), music directors
used Arabic music a lot. In a romantic scene between Santiago and Fatima,
most probably South East Asian music was used. In dance scenes, use of
Arabic fast beat music was a good choice. It made the scenes more festive like.

For me it was an effective production. But I have something to tell on which

director should have a look once again.

♦The character of Englishman was very much comic. He is a man of letters on

chemistry. Scholarly person should have weight in his personality.
♦There were three persons who acted as Santiago in this play. Dialogue
throwing of the second one was not clear. He has to work a lot on it.
♦More stagecraft should be used to make proper visualization. In oasis, there
were palm trees and well. One or two tents should be placed on the stage.
♦In some scenes, the background sound was so noisy that the audience couldn't
understand the dialogue. The director should be more careful about the
measurement of the volume of the background sound.

Abdullah Al - Mamun
BA in ESOL
English Language
Institute of Modern Languages
University of Dhaka