Aarfi revolves around SM Ahmed and his best friend, a six feet tall, invisible rabbit. PHOTO: PUBLICTY
KARACHI: In an unprecedented change of schedule, the Karachi Theater Festival being held at Arts Council ended on November 22, one day later than the original closing date. The short culmination ceremony saw a speech by none other than television veteran Anwar Maqsood, who thanked the council for organising the one-of-a-kind festival and promoting arts and culture in the metropolis.
Quoting Allama Iqbal, Maqsood said that Karachi should have a festival in the late poet’s honour, similar to how Lahore honours Faiz Ahmed Faiz regularly. Moreover, he commended the directors for their contributions in bringing captivating theatre plays and emphasised the importance of reading books.
After the speech, Akbar Islam’s Aarfi was staged, marking the end of the festival. Aarfi is Kamal Ahmed Rizvi’s adaptation of the 1944 play Harvey by Mary Chase and revolves around a gentleman named SM Ahmed (played by Islam himself) and his best friend Aarfi – a six feet tall, invisible rabbit. Awkwardness and hilarity ensues as Ahmed introduces Aarfi to everyone he meets, in turn embarrassing his sister and niece.
While the idea seems good on paper, it is tough to translate it on stage, especially when one of the lead characters is literally, invisible. Considering this, Islam’s performance succeeded in making the audiences believe that Aarfi actually existed. However, he completely failed in terms of direction.
The play was all over the place, with Islam’s performance holding it together singlehandedly. The rest of the cast failed to create what could have been an engaging experience for a number of reasons. First off, the nurse (Sehrish), and the daughter Mariam’s (Faryal) voice were, at times, inaudible due to sound effects in certain scenes. And when one was able to hear them, it was inexplicable.
The budding romance between the nurse and the doctor (Hamza Shaikh) and Mariam and the ward boy (Faraz Shaikh) didn’t add any interesting layers to the story. Most of the jokes fell flat because of timing issues and the audio-visual were out of sync. On top of that, the two-hour running time did not help Aarfi’s case either. The play could have been watchable had it been one-hour shorter.
Many audience members left in the middle as well, mainly due to a misconception that the play had ended when the cast and crew took a ten minute break in between to change the sets. This showed that whatever was happening on stage was not strong enough to make them stay.
It must be mentioned that Aarfi was not the best choice of play to close the festival. There have been more engaging plays during the last 20 days. Sunil Shankar’s Qusoorwaar would have been a better choice or Horn De Ke Pass Karo, if the idea was to end the festival on a comic note.
Regardless, the Karachi Arts Council must be applauded for holding such a grand and successful theatre festival and attracting play enthusiasts from all over the city. What is even more commendable is that the event showcased a large pool of new talent through its plays, including a few precious gems that will be treasured for a long time.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2016.
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