Othello goes on stage at Edwardes College in Peshawar

Dramatic society performed Agatha Christi’s Mouse Trap last year

PESHAWAR: Keeping its longstanding stage drama tradition alive the Edwardes College Drama Society will perform William Shakespeare's masterpiece Othello on its historic stage from March 7 to 9.

The Edwardes College Peshawar stage enjoys a historical prestige and has seen performances by stalwarts like Prithvi Raj Kapoor.

The annual drama event, as always, is attended by not only students of other educational institutions of Peshawar as well as other cities of K-P, but every year dignitaries, bureaucrats and people having a taste for literature and arts come to enjoy the performance by talented students of the British-era college.

In previous years, the Society has performed Hamlet, Macbeth and Julius Caesar and Anthony and Cleopatra which were considered as among its most excellent performances by not only students of other institutes but experts of literature and drama as well.

The dramatic society has always inspired students to unleash their potential on Edwardian stage. The society has won fame throughout the province for producing classical plays like Volpone, Hamlet, Macbeth, Dr Faustus and Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. Equally remarkable are the production of Modern Plays like A Man for All Seasons and Then There Were None. Every year, Edwardes welcomes students of different colleges and universities and people from different walks of life to relish its drama, making their evening unforgettable.

Almost every year, the society transforms students with little or no experience of acting into talents of a calibre fit for professional theatre acting. The Society has performed numerous literary and dramatic masterpieces.

More recently, it enacted Sophocles’ classic Antigone; a stage adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel: Les Miserables; and, a Shakespearian medley: combining Julius Caesar and Anthony and Cleopatra which was a one-of-its-kind performance unique to the Edwardes Stage since nowhere in the world had a medley of this kind been ever performed.

The last performance at Edwardes Stage was the enactment of the murder-mystery The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie.

The Edwardes Dramatics Society believes that stage is a remarkable platform for polishing students: making them more vocal, confident and more refined. The society also holds that the stage provides a window through which human society and psychology could be dissected and understood. This year, through the enactment of Shakespeare, the Edwardes Dramatic Society explores the theme of jealousy – for which Othello is renowned – and presents the self-destructive nature of both devious manipulation and unfounded jealousy.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2019.