Students show talent in Christie adaptation

Mystery performed in Urdu by students of Lahore Alma School.

LAHORE: Sunday marked the third and last day of a dramatic performance by the Lahore Alma School titled Jaal, an Urdu adaptation of the Agatha Christie’s famous play, And Then There Were None. Held at the Ali Institute, the performance was based on a mystery about eight people, all strangers, who were invited to an island.

The play began when the characters were all invited to dinner by Mr and Mrs Toor off the coast of Karachi. Each character presumed that they had been hired for an important task. Upon arriving at the mansion, they were greeted by Hameed, the butler, and Raheem, the housekeeper. Mr and Mrs Toor, the two men told the guests, were expected to arrive the next day.

The stage presented a view of a drawing room where the guests found ten figurine soldiers, placed around the fireplace. This is where the mystery began. At the dinner, an unidentified host informed the group that they all had been invited as they were each responsible for a serious crime and would be held accountable for that. Unable to leave the island, the group of people looked for their actual host. The night progressed, revealing more clandestine realities and one by one each of the characters was confronted by death. “The play has been a massive success and sold out for three straight nights,” said Talal Ali Jan, the director of the play.

Nayyab Sadiq, part of the production team, said, “I think the reason the play has been such a success is because we tried to present dramatic theatre rather than comedy, which is more often done in Lahore.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2011.