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Every single show for “King Lear” goes house-full!

Review

Review: Every single show for “King Lear” goes house-full, and rightly so!

KING LEAR by Zia Mohyeddin
NAPA

The Zia Moheyuddin Auditorium is bustling with activity as a house full of an anticipating audience each evening (till December 29), awaits the performance of the theatre play, King Lear (in Urdu).

Shakespear’s classic tale of King Lear – a monarch who is losing everything he once held in his fist, but is refusing to give up – has been presented countless times across the world. What is it about this play that makes people keep going back to it? And more importantly, what uniqueness does this rendition have over other renditions of the play?

Zia Mohyeddin Auditorium

For one, King Lear is directed by the legendary Zia Mohyeuddin himself. His painstaking efforts in the field of theatre have manifested in a new wave of theatre plays and other performing arts events recently springing up in the city. King Lear is yet another reflection of his brilliance. You find yourself transported back to the medieval age, witnessing Lear lose everything as he struggles through experiences of love and betrayal. Veteran actor Khalid Ahmed is not only starring as the lead (King Lear) but has also performed the magnificent job of retaining  the poeticity of the English dialogues into urdu. A good translation is a formidable achievement.

King Lear is about a king who decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters as he approaches his death. However, he deliberately disinherits his youngest daughter, Cordelia, who is in fact his only sincere child but fails to flatter him like his other two evil daughters. In a parallel plot, there is another king who disowns his righteous son, as he gets deceived by his other bastard son. And don’t be deceived for a second if it appears bland on paper, because the execution is just brilliant: a story of old men misjudging their own offsprings, and meeting their ends in a familiar taste of a Shakespearian tragedy, in yet another unique depiction of power, greed, and passion.

Khalid Ahmed

As I said earlier, what sets Shakespear apart is the careful positioning and beauty of verses in what his characters say and do on stage. And urdu, being a language of love itself, retains its poetical structure. And as one critic notes, not only does this play cover “the universal themes of flattery, lust, loyalty, follies of old age and dangers of being outspoken, but also portrays Marxist and existentialist criticism of life, much before such philosophical schools of thought existed with their current names”. Let’s take an example of the beautiful dialogue, “Robes and furr’d gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, and the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks”. Khalid Ahmed beautifully translates this into:

Qeemti libaas aur nafees ta’aam mein saaray aib chup jaatay hain. Gunah per sonay ka zira baktar charha dou, insaf ki laathi khud hee takra kar toot jayegi.

Now let us come to the ensemble cast, which as per critics, have become a force to be reckoned with. Khalid Ahmed again needs a special mention as a ‘show stealer’ because no matter what point in the story, he continues to keep the spotlight on himself as the audience is mesmerized by a spot on performance. Other than our King Lear, we have NAPA Alumni: Fawad Khan as the optimistic Kent, Paras Masroor as Edmond the evil bastard son, and Nazar ul Hasan as the rightful king Edgar. The subplot features well known actors including Mira Sethi, Shabana Hasan and Natalia.

Zia Mohyeddin

All of these features makes it an international level production that has set new precedents in the art, as an unforgettable theatrical experience.

See what the actors have to say about the show:

There is still a chance for you to go watch it before this brilliant piece is over. Till 29th December, the show is being performed at NAPA, at 8:00 pm. The ticket prices for the play are PKR 1000 for regular audiences, and PKR 500 for students. And if you’re a member at NAPA, your entry is free! Get your limited passes from Ticketwala now!

User Rating: 5 ( 1 votes)

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