Power - Play

I had knocked off another item from my Bucket list. Managed to watch Naseeruddin Shah live on stage - in Antigone at Hyderabad during the Qadir Ali Baig theater festival.


It's a play on Antigone's tragic death trying to cremate her brother Polyneices. It's one of those Greek tragedies and will interest you if you're interested in Greek literature/mythology or if you enjoy theater in general too.


In terms of performances, there's no need to mention how excellent Naseeruddin and Ratna Pathak Shah were. Benjamin Gilani introduced the play, characters and then the cast took over. The narrations were too long - a prologue, before the interval and an epilogue. Introductions are valid as audience needs to understand the context and characters and not everybody is well versed with Greek mythology. But when a long narration comes in between a play, it gets a bit boring. And the biggest negative for me was that the climax was all narrated and not really enacted. Antigone, Haemon and his mom's death are all narrated blandly and the theatrical drama that I expected was missing.


Anyway, I'm not an expert on theater, drama etc. so wouldn't pass any judgment on it. My takeaways from the play are quite different as I detail below. 


The reason for the hatred and confrontation between Antigone and Creon is her brother's cremation. Creon says that he too would have liked to cremate Polyneices as he is his nephew. He admits that he can't do it as he is bound by law and cannot cremate a declared traitor.


Antigone then questions his authority as a 'king'. She asks him what's the value of the power if that power doesn't let him do what he thinks is valid. Creon insists that great power brings with it greater responsibility. And that he can't go against his own judgment.


This part of the play got me thinking about power. Isn't this always the case? We see leaders of countries and kingdoms who really can't do what they want to for the fear of being disliked or losing the power. Power is such an intoxicant that one's ideals and beliefs are sometimes overlooked in order to keep up the power. Or sometimes the one in power is emotionally/ideologically bound by what his/her subjects expect from them - case in point - Lord Rama's story.


If a 'powerful position' seizes from us the power of absolute decision-making and the will to stick by our ideals, is that position really worth it? And what IS power? The real ability to be able to do as we believe or to have others believe that we're in a position to do so?