‘Stumped’: Of cricket, tragedy and wit — a dialogue with Imran Yusuf

The playwright defends the use of profanities in his work, says they are a part of everyday life.

KARACHI:

For upcoming playwright Imran Yusuf, being a die-hard fan of the Pakistani cricket team came naturally. “Born and raised in the UK, the Pakistani cricket team was one link I cherished with my homeland in my formative years.”

Yusuf smiles as he reminisces about his yesteryears in suburban England and how they inspired him into the world of writing. He is in conversation with novelist and cricket-critic, Saad Shafqat, at the T2F cafe on Sunday. The dialogue kicks off with Saad inquiring the inspiration behind the former’s latest play showing in theatres.

Stumped is a classical tragedy based on the themes of spot-fixing and national pride. It won the first National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) playwriting competition and was being staged at the Napa Repertory theatre.

“I wanted to write a classical tragedy and spot-fixing seemed to be a hot topic at the time,” explains Yusuf. Asked about his choice of the name ‘Kabristan’ to represent Pakistan, he says that the country is gripped by the phenomenon of death. “When I land at Karachi airport, it’s the stench of death that envelopes me. Just today, more than five people have died and the newspaper will probably carry one or two paragraphs on them. It has become a generally accepted fact in the city.”



Is there a symbolic message for the audience, Yusuf shrugs. “Well, if the audience wants to derive a message from it, they’re most welcome. I, for one, did not mean it to be that way. My job was to ensure the seats were filled.” Yusuf hopes the play was well-liked by the audience because, he said, the response has been encouraging.

How it all began

The play was originally meant for theatres in London, Yusuf admits. “I wrote the play in English last year and sent it to various theatres in London. Needless to say, it was royally rejected by all of them,” he chuckles. “One good thing that came out of the ordeal was that I got excellent reviews and advice from the theatre companies.”

He tweaked the play, added a few chapters and made sure to remove all traces of fine-writing from it. “Then I came to know about the Napa competition and sent them my manuscript. Kudos to them, I won first prize and here is where we stand now,” he smiles.

The play was translated into Urdu bearing in mind the target audience and the effects each line in the script until it was made perfect, he explains.

Shafqat wondered how Yusuf managed to capture the mental state of the players. “I guess all the years of religiously following the sport did not go to waste,” Yusuf replies.

A controversial aspect of the play was the use of profane language which even created a scene in one of the shows a few days earlier, when a man stood up in the middle of the performance claiming that it wasn’t fit for families because of the obscene content. Defending the use of profanities, Yusuf called the man a ‘thug’ and said, “It isn’t a stuffy, living room sort of a play. People use this kind of language all the time. It gives the work a natural feel,” he explains.

For Yusuf, his journey in the world of theatre has only just begun. “I feel like I’m part of the theatre family now.” He plans to stage his next play in London and claimed he had already started working on it. “It’s about a man and a woman who get into trouble and then into more trouble and then into a hell of trouble,” he smiles mysteriously.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2013.