Theatre a beautiful mirror that narrates human life

Hundreds of years ago legendary playwright William Shakespeare said, “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances.” With his unparallel understandings and foresight Shakespeare uttered these immortal words. The greatest ever playwright had the realization through his own journey that how profound the bond was between theatre and common people who live with their imaginings and reality. During his era, it could hardly be understood what the legendary playwright wanted to clarify but gradually over the changing phases of life we could comprehend how perfect he was. 

Dates back to 5th Century BC theatre originated in the land of ancient Greece and the word derived from Greek ‘theatron’ which stands for ‘a place of seeing’. Theatre gained immense popularity and flourished gradually with every changing chapters of history. Theatre has always been the medium that depicts the real life situations and shows that there is no escape from the actuality.

Theatre touched human life with the realistic approaches of love, tragedy, satire, comedy, sacrifice, sadness and many untold feelings that are part of life. When play or dramas get staged in front of the viewers’ eyes they start visualizing their own images on stage. It is a kind of mirror reflections of our real life situations that we cannot run away from. From ancient period to medieval age and from medieval era to modern day, Theatre has travelled a long way and this journey seems to be a never-ending one. This is perhaps the most happening form of creativity that has experienced up rise and  downfalls of dynasties, royal traditions, different eras , statesmanship and the vie for power,  war and destructions, helplessness of common people, loyalties, betrayals for power, pain, sufferings, optimistic beginnings , tragic ending, in depth love, conspiracies and unknown hatred. 

To honour and celebrate this exceptional art International Theatre Institute created World Theatre Day in 1962. Since then this day is celebrated to promote awareness regarding the wonderful performing arts all over the world. 

William Shakespeare, world’s most influential and most versatile playwright who had some magical spell of writing plays proved that there were not many discrepancies in a life of a common individual and a royal when it came to tragedy or betrayals. A monarch was destroyed as his fellows were not trustworthy; a king turned out to be a tramp when his decisions were wrong, a lover lost his love due to deadly fight of power, an emperor became a victim of betrayals and lost life  and  a best friend turned out to be a conspirator for assassination.  Let us have a glimpse of some of his legendary plays:

Julius Caesar

A Roman General and politician who was brutally assassinated by the conspirators and one of them was his best companion Brutus. Conspirators had the misconception that Caesar might gain too much power and might become a dictator who would mistreat his power. They convinced Brutus, the best friend of Caesar to join their assassination plot against Caesar.

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Merchant of Venice

Antonio was a merchant man who wanted to help his friend who was in love with beautiful lady Portia. He took a loan from cunning Shylock who trapped Antonio when he could not repay the loan and asked for a portion of flesh from his body. Heiress Portia who was then wife of Antonio’s friend hid her identity and dressed as a lawyer to save Antonio.

Othello

William Shakespeare's play Othello, much admired like his other classic tragedies was a love story that ended in pathos. Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who went against her father’s wishes and later on she eloped with Othello, a Moorish Venetian Army chief. Othello loved Desdemona like crazy but due to some misconception he started doubting her faithfulness and ultimately killed her. When he realized his blunder then also ended his life.

King Lear

The powerful king had three daughters but due to his wrong conceptions he deprived his youngest daughter from his property and divided whole kingdom between two elder daughters. Ultimately the King came to know that his two daughters betrayed him and he realized that his third daughter loved him truly.  The King became homeless as he was thrown out of his castle and he was completely mad and one night he went out in the middle of storm when his youngest daughter found him.

Hamlet

A tragic love story in which the ghost of the king of Denmark came back to tell Prince Hamlet that brutally he was killed by his brother who captured the throne and the Queen as well. He asked Hamlet to avenge his murder by killing him. Hamlet took the revenge of his father’s death and ultimately he also died.

Antony and Cleopatra

The tragic love story was based on real-life relationship of Roman Emperor Mark Antony and Famous queen of Egypt Cleopatra. The stunningly beautiful queen of Egypt fell in love with Mark Antony who was a prominent figure in the political administration of Rome. He was in love with Cleopatra and started neglecting his duties and responsibilities for spending time in Egypt with her. The queen wanted Antony to be with her forever but Antony had to go back to Rome when there was unrest and revolt.