LAHORE: The annual play of Government College University (GCU) Lahore titled ‘Raees’ was staged on Monday at GCU’s Bukhari Auditorium.
GCU Dramatics Club organised the staging of Raees, which was an Urdu adaptation of the novel of renowned writer William Shakespeare. GCU Vice Chancellor Prof Hassan Amir Shah, renowned TV, film and radio actor Firdos Jamal, stage actress and director Madiha Gauhar, playwright and novelist Mirza Ather Baig, TV host and actor Noorul Hassan and Alhamra Arts Council Board of Governors Chairman Kamran Lashari observed the three-day performances of the students.
The story of the play was based on novel, Macbeth, which was staged first in 1606. The story revolved around a Scottish general who was prophesied to become king of his country. Macbeth fulfills the prophecy by murdering the present king at his wife’s prodding. Then, one crime leads to another. Macbeth’s reign of terror eventually comes to an end with the bizarre oracle of his death coming true in equally bizarre fashion.
GCU Dramatic Club’s version was an hour and fifty minutes long. The script, translated by Urdu short story writer Syed Qasim Mehmood, was further shortened but managed to retain the plot. The play was directed by GCDC former president Dr Salman Bhatti, assisted by Sameer Ahmed, Dr Atif Yaqub, Ali Usman Bajwa and Ahmed Dar. The setting and names of the characters were localised so the title character of Macbeth became ‘Raees’.
The play utilised a minimalist setting. There were only silver-coloured pillars and black curtains on the stage. An old-fashioned heavy wooden chair served as the throne. Costumes in-charge Raeesa Fatima opted for a look that blended east and west with flowing robes that lent credence to the imagery. With barely anything on stage except the characters, the play utilised deft lighting effects managed by Mian Farhan. The lighting changed in accordance with plot development in every scene. In the beginning for instance, when Raees ruminates over the witches’ prophecy, he is given a pale face light, which gradually shifts towards red as he contemplates murder. Patches of light and dark engulfed the entire stage throughout the performance. Each character was given a signature color shade. This created an eerie gothic atmosphere reminiscent of a horror movie. The music and sound effects by Fahil Nasir matched the lights.
Raees was performed convincingly by Talha Akhter. His conniving wife, Zamurad, who goes mad after a series of crimes, was performed by Taban Tazmin. Dilawar (Banquo) was performed by Abubakr Arshad. The famous witches from Macbeth were Jabin, Mariam Naqvi and Aisha Rauf. These three characters were scary, funny and teasing in all of their scenes. Shah-e-Faras (Duncan) was performed by Hamza Ghayur Akhter. Comic relief came in the form of the ‘Harkara’ played by Mehran Potter. Momin Khalid and Ahmed were the king’s two sons. Muzammil Shabbir and Jazib Akram played noblemen at the king’s court. Kashaf Fatima and Mohammad Ata played the innocent mother and child killed by Raees’s henchmen. The two ferocious henchmen, GCDC president Mohammad Munib and Afaq Imran, were unnervingly entertaining in their grizzly acts. Mushtaq (Macduff) took the final applause from the audience for avenging the murder of his family at the hands of Raees in a carefully choreographed fight scene.
When asked why they did not stage the play in English, GCDC advisor Sameer Ahmed replied, “Although I teach English literature, I have a prejudice against staging English plays here. I think staging English plays perpetuates a colonial legacy. The English brought their theatre here to educate us in western cultural traditions. We had our nautanki theatre before the English came. But we forgot all about it. Theatre has to be indigenous and it has to be in local languages. We should have theatre in Urdu, Seraiki, Brohi and other regional languages. In Shakespeare’s days, French was considered a superior language for literary composition, but Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, John Webster and all the other dramatists chose to write in English. They preferred their language. Learn English, excel in it, but promote your own language is what I say.”
Director of the play, Dr Salman Bhatti added, “Theatres all over the world are celebrating 400 years of Shakespeare. We wanted to participate by bringing Shakespeare to Pakistan. Only a fraction of our population speaks English and even fewer people are able to understand the 17th century English language of Shakespeare. To truly bring Shakespeare to Pakistan, we had to make him comprehensible to our audience. For that we had to localise the play, to transform it into our cultural idiom.”