People's court to discuss Shakespeare's relevance

PUNE: A mock trial and people’s court has been organised on April 23, World Shakespeare Day, by ‘Shakespeare for All’ and Jagar to bring home to the audience the universality and timelessness of Shakespeare’s contribution to the world of literature and the magnitude of his influence on the common man’s day-today life.
Compere Sudhir Gadgil and professor of English Arun Bhagwat will read out the “chargesheet accusing Shakespeare scholar and enthusiast Vinay Hardikar of ‘unnecessarily’ playing up Shakespeare’s importance” in an era where the common man and academicians alike are increasingly arguing that the 16thcentury playwright is no longer relevant.
Shakespeare scholar and author of the book, “Shakespeare —His life and literature,” K R Shirwadkar will preside over the trial as the judge.
Addressing a news conference here on Tuesday, actor and theatre enthusiast Madhav Vaze said, “The mock trial will see a volley of charges against Hardikar, whose group Shakespeare for All has been celebrating World Shakespeare Day with lectures, play readings and Marathi translations of Shakespeare’s works since last 11 years, besides criticising Shakespeare, his limitations, prejudices and so on.
Through this ‘method of elimination’ we will underline his unwavering importance and the loss caused to students who are denied an exposure to Shakespeare at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels.”
The programme will commence with two speeches by Neha Mahajan and Raunak Dev and will be held at the Patrakar Bhavan, Navi Peth, 6.30 pm onwards on Saturday.