Theatre: The battle of feelings

LAHORE: The curtains of the Alhamra Arts Complex hall-1 on Wednesday opened to a dark stage where 13 performers each played a different emotion in the Verve Productions’ ‘Innuendo’.

The three-day play revolves around the feelings love, peace, hope, cowardice, fear, bravery, mischief, hate, greed, envy, modesty, penance and sorrow. It begins when ‘love’ dies and ‘hope’ is imprisoned. The performers playing the negative feelings_‘fear’, ‘mischief’, ‘hate’, ‘cowardice’, ‘greed’, and ‘envy’_are then shown taking over the world spreading ‘sorrow’. Later ‘hope’ is rescued by ‘bravery” and ‘penance’ who then teams up with ‘peace’ to resurrect ‘love’ in the final scene.

The young actors’ performance justified the theme and script of the play. Their body movement, dialogue delivery and connection with the audience was appreciated with loud applause.

The lighting and sound effects were also skillfully handled. Songs by Queen and the Beatles were used during the play. Amateur actors from various schools and colleges were selected through an audition a few months ago.

Ahmad Mufti, the director of the play, said that theatre in Pakistan was dying. “Youth is the only hope to revive the theatre culture here,” he said.

Mufti said that focusing on adaptations and foreign plays was not the way out. “People appreciate and want originality and that is what we should deliver as performers. No matter how bad the situation gets, there is always hope. The play also gives this message,” he said.

Haroon Rasheed, the writer, said that his aim was to project what positive and negative feelings did to people. “I wrote the script many times to make it better. I wanted the audience to relate to it,” he said.

Shah Fahad, the fear character, said that the play delivered the important message that “fear holds us prisoner and hope sets us free.” He said it was also applicable in the country’s present economic and political situation.

Asma Ameen from the audience said that the selection of songs made the play even more dramatic. It not only gave a boost to the script but also to the performances, she added.

The play will continue till February 26th.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2011.