The play kicks off with Lear (Khalid Ahmed), the aging king of Britain, who decides to step down from the throne and divide his kingdom evenly among his three daughters....
theatre
Shakespeare wisely and justly plays with the tragic flaws of his characters. He is habitual of creating a wild frenzy out of their flaws while providing the audiences a chance to ponder over a conflict or situation. Madness, sin and knowledge of self are a few common recurring themes in Shakespeare’s tragedies with their routes touching the philosophy of existentialism and nihilism. This is what Zia Mohyeddin’s rendition of Shakespeare’s magnum opus ‘King Lear’ was all about. The play ran through 19th to 30th December, 2019, at Karachi’s National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa), and was adeptly translated by Khalid Ahmed who also played the part of King Lear. Apart from Khalid, the cast had Mira Sethi and Zia’s constant company of actors including Fawad Khan, Nazr ul Hassan, Paras Masroor, Kashif Hussain, Naveed Kamal, Meesum Naqvi, Natalia Karanji, Shabana Hasan, Raheel Siddiqui, and Vajdaan Shah.
The play kicks off with Lear (Khalid Ahmed), the aging king of Britain, who decides to step down from the throne and divide his kingdom evenly among his three daughters. First, however, he puts his daughters through a test, asking each to tell him how much she loves him. Goneril (Mira Sethi) and Regan (Shabana Hassan), Lear’s older daughters, give their father flattering answers. But Cordelia (Natalia Karanji), Lear’s youngest and favourite daughter, remains silent, saying that she has no words to describe how much she loves her father. Lear flies into a rage and disowns Cordelia. The king of France, who has courted Cordelia, says that he still wants to marry her even without her land, and she accompanies him to France without her father’s blessing. Lear quickly learns that he made a bad decision. Goneril and Regan swiftly begin to undermine the little authority that Lear still holds. Unable to believe that his beloved daughters are betraying him, Lear slowly goes insane. He flees his daughters’ houses to wander on a heath during a great thunderstorm, accompanied by his Fool and by Kent (Fawad Khan), a loyal nobleman in disguise. As the plot extends, the story unfolds many other parts and twists which end up on a tragic note.
The entire setting, costumes, dialogues and characterisation aced Shakespeare’s four-century old play. But the most luring element of it was the language which Khalid Ahmed had intelligently mixed up with the actual plot. It was evident with the play’s execution that the makers had nothing to do with the actual Christian setting and had smartly made it shorter, crisper and relevant to the Pakistani audiences with the use of language easily decoded by the local theatre goers.
The captain of the ship, Khalid Ahmed, successfully portrayed Lear and his range as a stage actor. The transformation of his character from a father blinded by power and authority to an individual with self realisation was gripping. He managed to keep the spectators glued to their seats by the end of this two-hour play. Mira Sethi as Goneril was noticeable enough. She was bold but couldn’t justify Shakespeare’s version of Goneril who was too aggressive as aggression was one of her tragic flaws. After Khalid Ahmed, it was Nazr ul Hasan as Edgar and the destructive Paras Masroor as Edmund who brilliantly made their presence felt on the stage with powerful dialogues and monologues. The character of a Fool is another common element of a Shakespearean theatre. The scenes with the Fool were very elevating, showed how a joker can be so wise and well aware of the right and wrong, contrary to the king who couldn’t differentiate between real and selfish love.
The final scenes had the audience at the edges of their seats. They were commanding and something to take home and think deeply about. Lear’s painful realisation of self and the concept of nihilism portrayed through the play was heart wrenching. It seemed Khalid Ahmed deeply felt the emotions and effectively translated them through the character of King Lear. Undoubtedly, it was a massive experience for all theatre lovers and people who have profound knowledge of Shakespeare’s tragedies.
Image Courtesy: Iqra Sarfaraz & Adeela Akmal
