PESHAWAR: The students of historic Edwardes College Peshawar hypnotised audience by staging a classic Greek tragedy play ‘Antigone’ at the old hall of the college here on Thursday.

The dramatic society of the college conducted the theatre play in which students played out different roles to keep alive old tradition of the stage performance. Shamoon Gandapur, a young teacher and assistant director of the play, in his opening speech said that his colleagues had just wanted to motivate students to involve in serious and fruitful activities.

He said that live theatre was not only a challenge but it also instilled a spirit to act with confidence.

A large number of old Edwardians, theatre-buffs, families and select-invitees from different schools and colleges watched the play. It is for the 15th consecutive year that dramatic society of the college has been staging live English theatre plays.

Shireen and Suhail steal show by playing out roles of Antigone and Haemon

The duo of students Shireen and Suhail stole the show by playing out the roles of Antigone and Prince Haemon. A loud applause was given by the tasteful audience when the curtain fell at the end of the classic play on a tragic note.

Talking about her part, Ms Shireen told this scribe that role of Antigone quite matched her personality. “I played the Antigone comfortably because it was quite compatible with my temperament as I am also an aggressive lady. I did enjoy as it was my first attempt to perform live,” she said in a light vein.

Amna, who played the role of ‘Yurrdisee’ in the play, said that live performance was a real challenge for her but she did it after absorbing spirit of the character. “We are being told that Peshawar had once been the Asia’s top theatre, which had produced great stars. We are not short of any one. We can still do it,” she added.

‘Antigone’ a classic Greek drama by Sophocles opens with the two sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polyneices, who are fighting for the kingship of Thebes. Both men die in the battle. Their successor, Creon, decides that King Eteocles will be buried, but Polyneices, as he is leading a foreign army, is left on the field of battle. Antigone, his sister, buries him anyway.

Antigone is caught burying Polyneices and is condemned to death. Her fiancé and Creon’s son, Haemon, learns about this and tries to convince Creon to change his decision. It is only then that the seer Tiresias appears. After a long discussion, he finally persuades Creon that the gods want Polyneices buried. By then it is too late — Antigone has hung herself, Haemon kills himself when he finds her and Creon’s wife kills herself when she learns about her son.

Mohammad Daud, another student actor, said that playing an old blind seer in the drama was very tough but befitting response from the audience kept him in serious mood. He said that memorising long dialogues in refine English accent was a novel experience but their teacher’s guidance helped them to make it a success.

Prof Nasir Iqbal, who directed the play, said that basic aim of staging the play was to revive tradition of live performance. He claimed that Edwardes College Peshawar was the only institution in the province that was conducting theatre plays from classic English, French and Greek literatures. He said after hard work of two months his students could stage the play in a befitting manner.

The well-behaved audience watched the play with a good spirit as young performers made no fumbles and put up a flawless captivating show. Music, dim light and silence kept the participants gluing to their seats.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2017