Four hundred years of Shakespeare

The British Council in Karachi organised a panel discussion to mark 400 years of William Shakespeare at the British Council on Friday evening as part of the global initiative, Shakespeare Lives, to cultivate understanding, relationships and cooperation between Britain and the rest of the world.

The programme is aimed at building trust for the long-term security and prosperity of the United Kingdom (UK). It also aims at bringing a wider global audience, including the next generation of leaders in societies and individuals who have no prior experience of engaging with the bard.

Rosemary Hilhorst of the British Council said: “Shakespeare’s work continues to resonate in the present-day issues such as leadership, governance, conflict, discrimination and oppression. The British Council has been in the forefront in keeping his works alive through initiatives like Shakespeare Lives, which is part of our mandate to bring the best in British creativity to the rest of the world.”

The panel discussion, titled, “Exploring Shakespeare’s relevance to performance and the academia”, was participated in by Rosemary Hillhorst, Lynette Viccaji, a teacher at the Cedar College, and was moderated by Framji Minwalla of the Karachi University.

Lynette Viccaji’s views were somewhat unconventional but realistic. She said that many teachers wanted to project Shakespeare as sacred, beyond criticism, and said that such an attitude discouraged objective thinking. Besides, she said, words from his works were often taken out of context.

Minwalla talked at length about the Globe Theatre’s attempts and innovations to bring Shakespeare to the common man in the contemporary spirit. “We have to take Shakespeare down from the pedestal to understand his works,” said Viccaji.

Four short videos were screened highlighting innovations to juxtapose Shakespeare’s works on the contemporary mores and values. 

Some of the attempts shown were pretty squeamish. For example, in the original play Hamlet’s father’s spirit just appears to him to disclose the identity of his killer, while in the video, “Hamlet Prince of Denmark”, the spirit appears to Hamlet in a toilet seat. Many were left wondering as to why modern flushing sanitation had been dragged into an otherwise profound and sedate play. Surely, Hamlet’s father could have found a more wholesome venue to appear to his son.

But then, these are the mores of our modern, supposedly down-to-earth values of “realism”, our present-day world where the value pattern seems to be going through the throes of decay, euphemistically called change.

They might sound squeamish and nauseating to the majority and to the passing generation but then that’s the way it is. However, no other glitch in any of the videos could be detected.