All The World's A Stage
From USA Today:
"Shakespeare has come to Afghanistan. Four centuries after the famous bard's death, one of his plays has been adapted for the local culture in an effort to help revive a once-thriving theater scene and to promote peace in a country riven by ethnic hatred and still wracked by violence after decades of war....Afghanistan had a flourishing theater scene before it was obliterated by war. It started centuries ago with storytellers enacting religious myths and legends..."There's starting to be more and more shows being put on now. It's wonderful," said Aziz, the playwright, whose latest work won first prize this week at the Kabul Theater Summer festival."
"Affliction may one day smile again; and till then, sit thee down, sorrow!" Love’s Labour ’s Lost. Act i. Sc. 1.
posted by Presley Bennett @ 9/08/2005
4 comments
4 Comments:
Well, that's just one more thing that can be blamed on Bush ;P
I think it means good things!
At first blush, Afghanistan is one of the last places I would think to find Shakespeare. Then again, one of the appeals of Shakespeare has been his timeless grasp of the "human condition" (gawd, I hate that expression, but alas it IS valid in this case).
That after all these centuries, his work still speaks to us, even in Afghanistan, is a testament to his genius. Wow.
I love Shakesperean adaptation, and this one fits the bill perfectly. I also think that it's pretty fitting that it comes after the fall of the Taliban seeing as Shakespeare's works were themselves forbidden by the Puritains, whose reign in England was really quite similar.
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