9th KLF treats literature buffs to a special session

The 9th Karachi Literature Festival had a special treat in store for literature buffs on Saturday with readings from Shakespeare by the iconic theatre and cinema personality Zia Mohyeddin.

Literature fans were riveted to their seats in rapt attention to Mohyeddin’s theatrical talent for more than an hour. He read from various works by the bard.

His presentation was so effective that it gave one the feeling of being carried over to the locale of the piece that was being presented. The most profound was his reading of Mark Antony’s speech on the assassination of Julius Caesar.

In a voice most commanding and his impeccable English, which is a rare commodity these days, the way he started off the speech – “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. I have come to bury Caesar, not to praise him” – was said in a manner that one really felt as if he were being carried to Caesar’s funeral and as if he were standing beside his body and heaping scorn on his killers.

The force and feeling Mohyeddin put into the beginning of the speech, the profound tone, was a piece of theatrical perfection. Mark Antony’s speech was by far the best of his presentations.

He catapulted the audiences 2,000 years back in history, right to the funeral of the ruler, and drew hearty applause from all those present, especially the literature buffs. “Shakespeare was always in sympathy with human nature,” he said.

Mohyeddin said that whether it was seduction, fear or hope, the bard commented on those in a manner that today, even after a passage of 400 years, none could refute his comments on life, despite the way the world had changed over the period.

Shakespeare, he added, was not for any particular point in time because what he said held for all times to come. “Shakespeare condenses ideas and feelings into unforgettable expressions.”

Another reading was from ‘The Merchant of Venice’ in which he presented the monologue of the Jewish moneylender Shylock. He reproduced Shylock’s acrimonious dialogues with Antonio. The play dwells on human greed and the stone-heartedness that often overtakes humans.

Another piece he read from was ‘As You Like It’, and commented on the seven stages of man that the bard refers to. It is in the seven stages of man that the bard says: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Some consider it connotative of predestination and man being a captive in the hands of fate.

Oxford University Press Pakistan chief Ameena Saiyid, who was moderating the session, informed the audiences of Mohyeddin’s shining antecedents. She said Mohyeddin, after his training in Australia and England, had been acting both on the West End Stage in London and Broadway in New York City.

She said Mohyeddin had appeared in movies alongside the all-time greats of film, such as Sir Laurence Olivier, Peter O’Toole, Dame Judi Dench and many other

notable screen figures.