Pulling Shakespeare’s multiverses together

Hammad Sartaj speaks of his play ‘Here Lies a Noble Man’ that sees Iago and Macbeth chase ambition

KARACHI:

Ambition is a recurring theme in Shakespearean writing and even appears in his magnum opuses Othello and Macbeth. The very narrative tool gave director Hammad Sartaj the idea of bringing two completely different universes together in an attempt to delve deep into his subject.

Sartaj’s play Here Lies a Noble Man is a crossover between Othello and Macbeth. Through Shakespeare’s characters of Iago and Macbeth, Sartaj aims at showing where vaulting ambition can lead a man.



The production has already been pointed out as a “play to look out for” at the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) Young Director’s Festival. Talking to The Express Tribune, Sartaj said he chose Iago and Macbeth from Shakespeare’s enchanting multiverse because only they could have shown the two completely different sides of ambition. “On the one hand, we have Macbeth, whose ambition forces him to take his fate into his own hands, and on the other, we have Iago, who is driven by ambition to manipulate others,” he said. For instance, Macbeth is foretold that he would one day become king. Consumed by ambition, he decides to murder the incumbent king, Sartaj added.

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While Macbeth’s selection does make sense, the inclusion of Iago may raise a few eyebrows since various literary critics over the years have accused the character for lacking motivation and ambition, a trait fuelling comparisons with Lucifer. Aware of these criticisms, Hammad justified his selection noting how “there is good and evil in every person and with Iago, we get to see his ambition manifest through his hatred [for Othello].”

This is not the first time that NAPA’s ambitious directors have flirted with the idea of using multiple timelines. Earlier this year at the International Theatre Festival, the play Constellations was also set against the backdrop of multiverses —  a concept that may have become a little over-complicated for the audiences.

Hammad said lighting has helped him fuse the parallel scenes. “There are instances in the play where we have up to three scenes from both Macbeth and Othello being performed side-by-side. So, we’ve been very careful with our use of lighting to avoid confusing audiences,” he explained. “Plus, I don’t think one needs to explain each and everything. One shouldn’t doubt the intelligence of the audience.”

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Although creating a singular universe for Othello and Macbeth was no cakewalk, the most difficult part of the entire process was transcribing the script into Urdu. “I had two scripts in old English and translating them into Urdu was the most difficult part.”

For a play that will be performed in Urdu, having an English title is a unique decision. The title itself is a dialogue, uttered famously by Mark Antony in the Shakespearean play Julius Caesar after the titular character is stabbed by Brutus. “We kept this as the working title because, similar  to our play’s characters, Caesar was known for his ambition. So, it fit perfectly.”

The cast for Here Lies a Noble Man includes Syed Meesam Naqvi (Macbeth), Sunil Shankar (Iago) and Farhan Alam (Othello). It will run from November 24 to 25 at NAPA as part of the Young Director’s Festival.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2015.

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