Sunil Shanbag’s production of Shakespeare’s All’s Well that Ends Well at the Globe Theatre was vivid, bright, and bold. It was also performed entirely in Gujarati. The production was complete with Gujarati names for Shakespeare’s characters and super titles on the sides of the stage that provided brief English synopses of each scene, making the production’s overall look and feel almost entirely Indian–except in costume. Costume changes throughout the play showed each character’s views on wealth, love, and marriage, as characters faded in and out of subtly and blatantly Western dress while other remained in consistently Indian dress. Moreover, the addition of European dress in various scenes had significant implications about the values of Shakespeare’s protagonists, such as Bharatram’s obsession with money and Heli’s manipulative tactics. Specifically, their costumes show Heli’s possible progression towards a more stereotypical and negative Western view: a possible prioritization of marriage over love.
The play opens with a discussion between the King of France, renamed Gokuldas, and the Countess played by Meenal Patel, known in this production as Kunti. Because of their characters’ high social class, both of their costumes are simple but elegant and appear traditionally Indian: intricate and colorful designs in loose cut style. In this scene, Kunti wore faded gold suit while Gokuldas’ white suit and primary colored scarf. However, as soon as Heli (known as Heli and played wonderfully by Mansi Parekh) walked on stage, the boldness of her rainbow colored and intricately woven and dress dulled Gokuldas and Kunti’s costumes. All three characters appear in traditional Indian dress, but Heli’s actions added to her colorful ensemble suggested something bolder, just as her personality appeared in this scene.
These initial costumes displayed the female character’s views of love as traditional or idealistic, creatively expressing two of the play’s biggest tropes. Kunti’s monotone gold implied wealth, and constant gold implies practicality, as she suggests that Heli avoid her own son and maintains such consistency throughout the play. This costume juxtaposed Heli’s freer and brighter dress, which showed her more idealistic behavior. She looks more traditionally Indian. She has fewer inhibitions, and this freedom coupled with bright, colorful dress suggests idealism about love, and particularly her love for Bertram or Bharatram. When Kunti and Heli discussed Heli’s love for Bertram, known as Bharatram, Heli flitted around her almost frantically, as though possessed by her own love, while Kunti remained still.
However, the European suits worn by the play’s male characters implied a stereotypically negative European preoccupation with money and class, two other crucial elements of Shakespeare’s text. Bharatram entered his first scene wearing an indistinct costume matching that of his father, although less ornate in design. The level of his European dress heightens and lessens throughout the play, depending on the prominence of money in the dialogue. In scenes where money was a key factor in conversation, such as the scene when he discusses a “business venture” with his father, Bharatram wore a full-suit.
In fact, Bharatram almost always appeared on stage in at least a European-style jacket, which suggested that money or class were ever-present in his mind. In another scene, when he and Parabat traveled to Bombay, both wore jackets over their bland shirts and pants while a townsperson danced around them wearing colored pants and a blouse. This scene drew a direct comparison between the liveliness of the city-dweller and Heli, who danced in a similar manner in the beginning and wears a similar costume. It also put Bertram’s upper-class position into light. He awkwardly clapped and laughed while the man bounced freely around them, just as Heli seemed freer compared to Kunti’s formality in the first scene.
Heli’s costumes changed as the play progresses as well. The play opens after intermission with Heli grieving Bharatram’s rejection of her. She wore a striking red dress as the super title projected the caption essentially saying “Heli describes her growth from girl to women.” This costume choice coupled with the super title proves that Heli has at abandoned her hope that Bharatram could authentically love her. She wears a monochromatic, tighter dress that is still bright but also cut more traditionally European cut, suggesting that she has gained a more European view of love as marriage more so than passion.
This transition becomes more apparent when Heli meets Alkini. She began to take on Alkini’s more feminine, sexualized style and maintained it for the rest of the play. In the scene when they meet, Heli wore a cut and colored dress. She appears more sexually free, like Alkini, and her mimicry of Alkini’s costume suggests a parallel between them, as she uses her wiles and her sexuality—literally, a bed trick—to win Bharatram. Did this costume transition imply empowerment or exploitation?
The play’s final scene solidified these transitions and the questions they raise about Heli’s character. Heli walked on stage in a dress with similar cut to the one she begins to wear with Alkini, which suggested her return to vivacity as in the first scene, but with a more empowered feminine stance based on the dresses’ cut and bright red color that stood out blatantly next to Bharatram, who wore a stiff, tan suit. He radiated the idea that despite an admission of love, he felt nothing for Heli. Color choices here reflected Heli’s empowered victory in marrying Bharatram, but the European style of both costumes also suggested a sad acceptance of the situation as opposed to passion. Was she empowered for her victory, or does her abandonment of the idea of true love prove a greater loss?
Costume choices in this production highlighted the problem of the play’s ending, particularly the question of Heli’s character at the end. Marriage and love do diverge in their own ways in India; however, the addition of starkly European dress contrasted with traditional, freer Indian attire had a negative implication about the latter. While I highly enjoyed the play and felt upbeat through most of it, costume choices and the end on European dress suggest that while the production was vivid and upbeat, Shanbag does not view Shakespeare’s text as a comedy. Costumes show that this production costumed a darker truth, the text’s essential question: when money and marriage get in the way of love, perhaps things cannot truly end well.
