Lucknow University students enact scenes from Shakespeare’s plays, leave audience spellbound
The department of English and Modern European Languages of the Lucknow University (LU) hosted the first edition of ‘The Shakespeare Literary Festival’ on May 11
The department of English and Modern European Languages of the Lucknow University (LU) hosted the first edition of ‘The Shakespeare Literary Festival’ on Thursday at the Malviya Hall of the university. The event was a theatrical attempt at exhibiting various aspects of William Shakespeare’s dramatic craft. It was marked by extraordinary display of talent by the students of the department.
Vineet Maxwell David, a faculty of the department, introduced the first edition of festival. The performances on various scenes and characters from Shakespeare’s plays followed thereafter. Shashwat Pandey enacted Mark Antony’s speech, “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” from ‘Julius Caesar’ while Sachin Pandey narrated Sonnet 18 of Shakespeare.
Gargi Dwivedi enacted the character of Calpurnia (wife of Julius Caesar) while Mansi Yadav essayed the role of Julius Caesar. Manya Jain presented Kathak on the compelling rendition of Lady Macbeth’s reading of Macbeth’s letter. Areeb Zehra and Puneet Pathak enacted a scene from the Urdu translation of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Rajkumar Singh performed the speech “It is the cause Othello” from ‘Othello’. This was followed by Shubhangi Soni’s moving dance performance on a classical song which was an enactment in dance of the sleepwalking scene of ‘Macbeth’.
Mansi performed Ophelia’s speech, “Oh what a mind here is overthrown” from Hamlet. Anupam Kumar read Sonnet 29 of Shakespeare. This was followed by an enactment of the evocative gravedigger scene from ‘Hamlet’ by Khalid Quyoom Paray and Alina Nasir in Urdu. Sonia Chhimwal performed Rosalind’s speech, “So was I when your highness took his dukedom” from ‘As You Like It’.
Umme Kulsoom recited Allama Iqbal’s Shakespeare sonnet 156 from Baang e Dare in Urdu, translated by Dr Mustansir Mir. Jyotirmoy Joshi performed the riveting, “To be or not to be” soliloquy from ‘Hamlet’. Kaushiki Singh recited her original poem titled “Bard of Avon” which she wrote on William Shakespeare.
Sanchali Raj enacted the role of Portia from ‘The Merchant of Venice’. Yagya Gupta performed a classical dance. Alina Nasir enacted the character of witch from ‘Macbeth’. The enthralling performances by the students and research scholars mesmerised the audience. Prof. Meenakshi Pawha delivered the vote of thanks.
Vice chancellor of the LU Prof Alok Kumar Rai; dean, faculty of arts Prof Arvind Awasthi and dean students’ welfare Prof Poonam Tandon were also present on the occasion. Head of English department Prof M Priyadarshini welcomed the guests.
The event also witnessed the formal launch of the first issue of the third volume of ‘Rhetorica’—the journal of the department of English and Modern European Languages.
