Actress Ruks Khandagale And Shakespeare Part 21 May 2026

If you are in Mumbai, catch the final two shows of "Shakespeare Part 21" at the Experimental Theatre, NCPA, on November 15 and 16. Tickets are sold out, but a waiting list is open for the midnight performance.

If you are just joining this journey, Shakespeare Part 21 is not a sequel to the Bard’s existing 37 plays. Rather, it is a conceptual, performative epic: a 21st-century deconstruction of the Shakespearean canon through a single, unyielding female lens. Part 21 represents the 21st iteration of this experiment—an act of artistic archaeology where Khandagale unearths the forgotten women, the silent maids, the grieving mothers, and the vengeful ghosts that the original texts only hinted at. To understand Part 21, one must first understand Ruks Khandagale. Trained at the National School of Drama (NSD) and a veteran of the Indian independent theatre circuit, Khandagale is known for her chameleonic physicality. She doesn’t just play characters; she possesses states of being . Her previous works—adaptations of Ibsen, Chekhov, and Girish Karnad—have always carried a signature motif: the voice of the voiceless.

In a particularly harrowing sequence in Part 21, Khandagale performs the "Sleepwalking Scene" from Macbeth —not as Lady Macbeth, but as every character in the castle simultaneously. She changes her posture and dialect every three seconds. One moment she is the scrubbing hands of the queen; the next, she is the bewildered Physician; the next, the terrified Gentlewoman. It is a tour de force of split-second characterization that leaves the audience breathless. actress ruks khandagale and shakespeare part 21

Critics have called it "iambic pentameter for the uncanny valley." What sets Ruks Khandagale apart from other classical actors is her use of environmental immersion. In Shakespeare Part 21 , the stage is a diamond of fragmented mirrors. As she moves from character to character—from a grieving Hermione in The Winter’s Tale to a vengeful Tamora in Titus Andronicus —she is forced to confront her own fragmented reflections.

Thus, Shakespeare Part 21 was born—a solo performance piece that has evolved over 21 distinct "versions" or "acts," each revisiting the same seven archetypes but through a different cultural or temporal lens. The latest iteration, Part 21 , which premiered last month at the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa, is perhaps the most audacious yet. Titled The Desdemona Code , this version transposes Othello into the world of digital surveillance and AI companionship. If you are in Mumbai, catch the final

Fellow thespian Naseeruddin Shah recently remarked, "Most actors play Shakespeare. Ruks interrogates him. She walks into the text like a detective into a crime scene, and she refuses to leave until she knows who swung the sword."

When asked how she prepares for such a feat, Khandagale smiled: "I don't prepare. I un-prepare. Shakespeare wrote in a time of plague, civil unrest, and radical change. We live in the same. Part 21 is just the mirror held up to 2026." A unique layer of Shakespeare Part 21 is its infusion of Indian classical performance theories. Khandagale, a student of the Natya Shastra (the ancient Indian treatise on performing arts), applies the concept of Bhava (emotional state) and Rasa (aesthetic flavor) to Shakespearean tragedy. Rather, it is a conceptual, performative epic: a

But Shakespeare eluded her. For years, she felt trapped by the iambic pentameter, the patriarchal structure of the histories, and the tragic fates of heroines like Ophelia, Desdemona, and Lady Macduff. "I realized I was jealous of the men in Shakespeare," Khandagale said in a recent interview at the Prithvi Theatre Festival. "They get the soliloquies of ambition. The women get the songs of madness. So I decided: What if I gave them the soliloquies? All of them."