Globe to Globe Blog: Jo Caird on The Taming of the Shrew & The Comedy of Errors
Hasnat,
Ghazi and Qazim all wish to marry beautiful Bina. Her father,
however, has decided that a husband must be found for Kiran, Bina’s elder sister, before he will even discuss his youngest’s prospects. But who
would want to marry short-tempered, independent-minded Kiran? Bina’s
suitors are in despair.
Welcome to the stage Rustam, who is eager to make his fortune (Kiran will carry with her a significant dowry) and not afraid
of a challenge. This shrew may not realise it, but she is about to be
tamed.
Transposing
Shakespeare’s most baldly misogynist plot to modern day Pakistan –
a society where arranged marriages are still the norm and violence
against women is a major social problem – gave The Taming of the
Shrew a dramatic weight that would be difficult to attain
in another context. The cast played every moment of comedy to (and
sometimes, alas, beyond) its full potential, making for an enjoyable
and accessible evening of theatre, but it was Nadia Jamil‘s witty
and knowing performance in the title role that gave this production
its edge.
Strong supporting performances by Omair
Rana as Rustam, Karen David as Bina, Umer Naru as her successful
suitor, Qazim, and Ahmed Ali as Qazim’s servant, Mir, gave
Theatre Walley’s production a solid narrative centre that was marred
only by director Haissam
Hussain‘s tendency to go for lowest common denominator laughs.
The
addition of a narrator, who introduced the piece and flitted around
pulling focus from the protagonists in every scene, was a puzzling
choice. Casting a cross-dressing male actor as
Ghazi’s middle-aged bride at the end of the play was similarly perplexing. But
other innovations – such as having characters occassionally break
into Lollywood-style song or dance routines – added a splash of
local colour that firmly grounded the production in its new context.
A
modern setting worked well for The
Comedy of Errors too, which was staged in Dari
Persian by Roy-e-Sabs,
a Kabul-based theatre company performing outside of Afghanistan for
the first time.
The
plot centres around a case of double mistaken identity, in which a
pair of identical twins separated at birth end up in same city
unbeknownst to each other, causing all manner of confusion. The
story is no less implausible in modern day Kabul than in any other
context, but the master/servant relationships that are so central to
the piece, as well as its sexual
politics, fit this world perfectly.
Knockabout
comedy, unsurprisingly, was the order of the day, with plenty of
physical business breaking up the text. Abdul
Haq
as Arsalan
of Samarkand, with Shah
Mohammad
as his
faithful servant Bostan, made a brilliant double act – the extended scene in the marketplace
where they are given new clothes in order to pass as residents of Kabul
was particularly well judged.
Director Corinne Jaber
would have done well to rein in the overexuberant performances of
some of her cast, however. Shah
Mamnoon Maqsudi,
doubling as Ehsan, father to the separated twins, and the naughty
kitchen maid Kukeb, was a delight to watch, but stole every scene
with his clowning, undermining his fellow actors and distracting
attention from the plot. Pantomime can be a joy in the right context,
but here it felt unsubtle and out of place.
As
with The Taming of the Shrew, what set this
production apart was the feeling that beneath the comedy, there was a
point being made, albeit very gently.
As
expensive trinkets changed hands and power shifted from one twin to
the other, it became clear that Roy-e-Sabs
have made The
Comedy of Errors into a play about the injustice of wealth
and status.
While
most of the final scenes of comedies in this festival have descended into
near hysteria, as character after character makes a shocking confession as to their true identity or motivation, the end of this piece had a satisfying restraint and dignity to it, despite the implausibility of the scenario.
All
credit to Jaber then for such an adept adaptation,
especially given the challenges of making theatre in what is still a
highly repressive regime. Following
a 2005 Roy-e-Sabs production of Love’s Labour’s Lost
that included women acting with their heads uncovered and men and
women holding hands,
two female cast members were forced to leave the country. Auditions
for The Comedy of Errors took place in secret and
the show was rehearsed
in India because of security concerns. That Roy-e-Sabs
are managing to make work at all is impressive. That The
Comedy of Errors was one of the strongest shows in the
Globe to Globe programme is a major achievement.
