Lear's predicament.

Byline: Peerzada Salman

KARACHI -- If Charles Lamb was born in the second half of the 20th century or early 21st century, he wouldn't have suggested that 'the Lear of Shakespeare cannot be acted' because it's too gruesome for stage. On the other hand, it would be safe to claim that John Keats's tribute to the play, 'the bittersweet of this Shakespearean fruit', still holds true - after all, it is the greatest of tragedies written for stage.

Eminent artist Zia Mohyeddin must've had the enormity of the task - both in terms of artistic execution of the story and plausible interpretation of the text - in mind before deciding to direct an Urdu version with Khalid Ahmed doing Lear's extremely demanding role. The task is doubly challenging because the tale, four centuries after it was penned, has themes as contemporary as they can get: ingratitude, lust for power, filial betrayal and that inexorable tussle between body and soul.

Mohyeddin's Urdu version that opened at the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) on Wednesday evening with a preview of the play held for the media, gives due respect to the themes and wisdom imparted through the story. It also shows an understanding of local theatre-goers for whom a little more than three-hour performance is a bit hard to sit through. So the drama, translated by Khalid Ahmed, has bits edited out - not an awful lot, though. Even then the director and his ensemble Napa cast manage to keep the spirit of the sad tale pure.

It all begins when King Lear of Britain decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters Goneril (Mira Sethi), Regan (Shabana Hassan) and Cordelia (Natalia) by asking them, individually, how much they love him. Goneril and Regan use hyperbolic descriptions of their love for their father, but when it's the turn of the youngest, Cordelia, to respond to the question that what can she say to 'draw a third more opulent' than her sisters, she replies 'nothing' (kuchh nahin).

This invites the wrath of the king and a heated dialogue ensues between him and Cordelia, which his close associate, the Earl of Kent (Fawad Khan), tries to pacify to no avail. As a result, Kent is banished and Cordelia wins the affection of the king of France who expresses his will to marry her. She leaves the premises with him.

Then there is a simultaneous track of another of Lear's well-wishers Gloucester (Meesam Naqvi), who has a son Edgar (Nazr ul Hassan) and a villainous illicit son Edmund (Paras Masroor) -...