June 23, 2011
This is a piece about the latter history of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, mined in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh back in mediaeval times and until recently the world’s biggest diamond. As we pick up the tale of the gem’s turbulent story, it is in the possession of Duleep Singh, Maharajah of Lahore (now in Pakistan), but is destined to be annexed by the British rulers of India and be carted off to London to form a prized component of Queen Victoria’s (and of course the present Queen’s) crown jewels in the Tower of London. In the small theatre space upstairs at Copa pub on George St, three members of the ZeroCulture company from Birmingham - Liam Nooney, Taresh Solanki and Emma Sian Cooper - adopt countless roles and costumes as they whiz between the Punjab and London on their 7m x 7m magic carpet. The rather stark pub space was not filled out to best advantage by Friday’s small audience, but a map of Asia chalked on the floor and a couple of backing screens proved enough to aid the imagination. A decent pace was maintained as we galloped though the decades taking Duleep Singh from the pomp of his court to his bitter demise, penniless and an exile in an uncaring Europe. The cast keep up a bewildering pattern of short scenes and character changes. Emma Cooper alone plays successively the Dowager Maharanee, Queen Victoria, a British officer, the young Maharanee, watchman, Indian officer, the Koh-i-Noor diamond itself, servant, opera singer, actress, newspaper seller, shoeshine boy, Irish bystander, Russian émigré revolutionary and the closing narrator. Just typing the list makes my head swim and Lord knows how she kept in part, but she did, and with great skill - and her co-actors matched her part for part. Turbans off to them!
The script is workmanlike rather than inspired, and I couldn’t help reflecting at the end on an earlier episode of the diamond’s history, not touched on here. The Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan, onlie begetter of the Taj Mahal, had the stone placed into a jewelled setting in his ornate Peacock Throne. In due course his ungrateful son had him imprisoned in Agra Fort and legend has it that the Emperor had the Koh-i-Noor positioned near a window so that, refusing to look directly upon the Taj Mahal from his window, he could see it only by looking at its reflection in the great stone. Now there’s poetry for you!
The script is workmanlike rather than inspired, and I couldn’t help reflecting at the end on an earlier episode of the diamond’s history, not touched on here. The Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan, onlie begetter of the Taj Mahal, had the stone placed into a jewelled setting in his ornate Peacock Throne. In due course his ungrateful son had him imprisoned in Agra Fort and legend has it that the Emperor had the Koh-i-Noor positioned near a window so that, refusing to look directly upon the Taj Mahal from his window, he could see it only by looking at its reflection in the great stone. Now there’s poetry for you!