GEORGE TOWN, March 4 ― While the pandemic has impacted (and continues to do so) everyone globally, this is not the first time the world has experienced something of this scale.

Playwright Jayaram Menon cleverly weaved in the experiences that William Shakespeare faced during the bubonic plague with experiences that artists and performers here faced during this pandemic and the end-result is his play A Plague Upon Your House.

"Writing this play was the best antidote to the lockdowns and restrictions on theatre-going and performances,” he said.

He explained he wanted to write a play about the pandemic by showing the big picture of how it affects the people, particularly artists and performers.

Instead of only focusing on what is happening now, he wanted to look for inspiration from artists or performers of other eras who had faced similar experiences.

"It was then I realised that Shakespeare, who was not only a playwright but also a performer, went through lockdowns during the plague too,” he said.

He said Shakespeare faced 52 months of lockdown and the same shutdown of theatres during the plague.

Shakespeare became the inspiration that sparked the beginning of Jayaram's play and thus, the phrase "a plague upon your house” became the title of his play.

The phrase, of course, is from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

However, Jayaram's portrayal of Shakespeare is not of a well-known playwright but of the person he was before he attained fame.

"This Shakespeare is not yet the Bard we know, the man we want to portray is the real man behind that name, the man who has to find a way forward and do anything he possibly can to advance his art form,” he said.

He said the play will serve as an encouragement to struggling artists and performers to move forward after surviving two years of the pandemic.

"The Shakespeare in this story is an artist in the contemporary world facing the cancellation of shows, loss of opportunities and having to move on to other work to feed his artistic soul,” Ivan Gabriel, who plays Shakespeare, said.

He said there is a lot of correlation between what his character did and what he has to do in real life facing the pandemic.

The play is by the Penang Players Music and Drama Society and supported by the Cultural Economy Development Agency.

It opens tonight and will continue through the weekend. Performances start at 8pm tonight and Saturday and 3pm on Sunday at Loft 29 at Church Street Ghaut.

Tickets to the play can be bought here.