Reconceptualising Witches as Hijras in Macbeth: Tara Arts’ Adaptation

Abstract

Tara Arts’ Macbeth has been well received among theatre critics. This production employed hijras, a third gender community in South Asia, in place of three witches. Revered and humiliated hijras are used as a device to present the third gender politics within South Asian communities. Without changing Shakespeare’s text in Macbeth, Verma succinctly alters the meaning of the text and provides a transformed interpretation of Macbeth through this production.  This article examines Verma’s production of Macbeth through the Hindu myth of ardhanarishvara (a half male and a half female) and the concept of coexistence of two genders living in the same body.