NAPA student staged Othello

NAPA student staged Othello
Karachi: The final-year students of National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) successfully staged Shakespeare's classic play 'Othello' at the Arts Council Karachi as a part of their final year project. The best part of the NAPA play this time was the fact that it was directed by a student of the graduating batch and not by a member of the faculty.

The play was directed by Ali Abbas and had Nazar al Hassan, Shaan Sheikh, Mewish Siddique and Zain Nazar in the lead cast. The story is a popular tale of Othello and the doubts that keep on building up against his wife Desdemona.

Performing Shakespeare in Urdu and doing it perfectly with keeping the body of knowledge of that era in context is a very difficult task to achieve. The not yet graduate students of NAPA have shown new rays of hope for theatre in Karachi by there exceptional performance. The play was performed in the absence of their seasonal actors such Ali Rizvi, Ovais Mangalawal, Aiman tariq , Saqib Khan and Bakhtawar Mazhar who had become the part and parcel of every NAPA play and yet the entertainment level never went down.

The actor who dominated the play was Nazar al-Hassan who played Lago. Although Lago by its very nature is a strong character, the way it was executed was commendable. Character traits such as the wicked laughter, cunning walk and whispering with suspicion gave the character a very strong feel and the audience could see Nazar living the character of Lago and changing delivery patterns on stage.

Previously we had seen only Aiman Tariq and Baklhtawar Mazhar, two female graduates from NAPA, who had made it big but Mehwish, who played Desdemona, is another gem to look forward to.

Shaan Sheikh was the smart guy playing Othello but there was not much to his character, Othello could have been more powerful, however in the end of the play when he was about to kill Desdemona, Sheikh did not leave the audience disappointed.

Technically the play was very sound. Something that needs to be commended was the brilliant choreography of the sword fighting scene and the reactions that were necessary in such duels. All the characters were hitting swords with full force yet no one was hurt.

Lighting was an interesting part of the narrative which started with a very low key effect and moved on to fully lit faces in the second half of the play. The wardrobe was adapted according to the script and the set was minimalist but yet had the Shakespearian feel to it.

NAPA students proved there mettle with Othello and also negated the stereotype that NAPA students can only act and not direct with excellence. Considering that it was a final year project and for the first time any project was commercially staged, it was a class act. Some very bold lines were delivered so convincingly that they never sounded profane.

Othello was a positive step for NAPA and for theatre in Karachi and putting Shakespeare successfully on stage is a solid proof of the potential of the NAPA students. The news