An Irishman in Lahore

LAHORE: When 9-year-old Ian Eldred came to Lahore 15 years ago, he was looking to make friends. But after spending over a decade in the city, he is anything but a foreigner.

“Many people motivate me to go back but this is my home. I have friends, memories and a life here,” he explains. Eldred is actively involved in the English-language theatre scene in Lahore and has worked in several plays with Shah Sharabeel and Omair Rana. These days he is busy rehearsing for Omair Ranas play Noises Off which is set to be staged this August.

Ian Eldred, who is a law student, said that Noises Off is a comic play and features spontaneous comedy. “It’s a mixture of stand-up comedy and farcical acting,” he explained.

However, Eldred is not very positive about the state of Lahore’s theatre scene. “There are very few means of entertainment left here now. The only excessive ‘entertainment’ here is food. People aren’t doing anything great. We need to have community participation to make Lahore a cultural hub in reality. Currently, it seems like a cliche to call Lahore cultural hub of the country,” he said.

According to him, “Producers have created a mindset. They aren’t taking risks and they have presumptions that parallel theatre doesn’t have any space. Well, you have to try it. You have to take risks to make a market for it. Otherwise I believe that this great city is fossilising.”

When asked why he chose this city to live in, he said, “Most people ask me why I live here while there isn’t any electricity, and often no water. I was too young to make a decision to live here and it doesn’t make sense but somehow I assimilated so well here that I couldn’t go back”.

He may have absorbed himself far too well.

“The other day I went to the  Iqbal Town market to buy jeans. I was talking to the shopkeeper and the talk slipped on to England somehow. He suddenly looked at me and said, ‘sir aap agar pant coat pehn lo to bilkul angrez lago’.”

Ian Eldred said that his favourite place in Lahore is the walled city.

“The surge of energy I see in people there isn’t found in anywhere else. In the older part Lahore people are what they are without any artificiality,” he said. “When I look at the class difference among people I really feel bad but we aren’t doing anything for those who are in need.

We need to go back to our sufi culture and legends. We don’t need wisdom from others. We have our own legends in poetry and literature and especially in sufi literature.”

Commenting on the commercial theatre of Lahore, Eldred said that he didn’t support obscenity or vulgar dialogues but he admired the stage artists for their spontaneity and energy. “We need to invest in art immediately or we will lose what we have.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2010.