From Hemingway’s Sea to Kathakali’s Stage: The Timeless Struggle of Santiago

“A Man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
This timeless, almost Biblical sentence was written by Ernest Hemingway. In one line, it expresses his undaunting spirit, his heroic ego, and the temperament of a man who survived three wars, remained fascinated with death throughout his life, and believed that “In order to write about life first you must live it.”

However, his last masterpiece, The Old Man and the Sea, arrived at a crucial moment in his career. After the critical failure of Across the River and into the Trees, Hemingway returned to fiction with renewed intensity. The novella became both a creative redemption and a declaration of artistic mastery. In the resilient figure of Santiago, the old Cuban fisherman, and the quiet loyalty of the boy, Hemingway rediscovered the elemental drama of human persistence. The narrative transcended the literal world of fishing and became a meditation on dignity, struggle, and the stubborn grace of human effort. It was his way of proving once more that “man is not made for defeat.”

But what happens when this quintessentially Western tale of Santiago meets the grandeur and theatricality of Kathakali, Kerala's classical dance-drama? The Old Man and the Sea: Kathakali of the Morrow is an audacious reimagining in which Hemingway’s spare prose collides with the ornate, ritualised storytelling of Kathakali.

The adaptation has been developed and directed by Kalamandalam Neeraj, associated with Kerala Kalamandalam. The performance condenses the novella into a ninety-minute theatrical experience that transforms Hemingway’s quiet narrative into a vivid spectacle of movement, rhythm, and expression.

The play features Italian actor Mario Barzaghi alongside Kalamandalam Pradeep as Santiago, with Peesappilly Rajeevan embodying the Sea. Blending Malayalam and Sanskrit, the production uses traditional Kathakali mudras and stylised movement while reimagining the fisherman through customised costumes. Presented in a non-proscenium format with two stages. The staging dissolves the boundary between performer and spectator, immersing the audience in Santiago’s solitary voyage.

Kathakali thrives on visual storytelling through elaborate makeup, stylised gestures, and thunderous percussion. Traditionally, it draws from the mythic worlds of the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and Puranas. To adapt a modern Western novella about an ordinary fisherman is therefore a daring artistic experiment. Yet the result reveals how literature travels across cultures and forms. 

In this adaptation, Santiago’s battle with the marlin becomes a symbolic dance between man and nature. The fish is no longer merely a creature of the sea but a mythic adversary whose presence is evoked through swirling movement, the beat of the chenda, and the deep resonance of the maddalam. The ocean itself becomes a living entity, expressed through flowing gestures and the dancers' fluid rhythm. The quiet existential themes grow larger and more cosmic. What was once a solitary struggle becomes a dialogue between life and fate, endurance and surrender, the human spirit and the vastness of the natural world.

The production stands as a marvellous example of literature reborn as theatre. It is both a tribute to Hemingway and a celebration of artistic exchange between East and West. And when Mario, as Santiago, lies upon the stage, exhausted yet undefeated, one cannot help but recall Hemingway’s haunting words:

“He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now...”

Join us to watch the magical retelling of The Old Man and the Sea: Kathakali of the Morrow on 21st March 2026, at 8 PM, at the 21^st edition of the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards at the Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi.