Arthur Miller adapted in post earthquake Pakistan

Jo Chaley Tau Jaan Sae Guzar Gaye — a rescue for NAPA Repertory Theatre.

KARACHI:

Arthur Miller is one of the most renowned American dramatists and essayists. His popular plays like Death of a salesman, The Crucible and A View from the Bridge have been performed world over in different languages.

This time around NRT (Napa Repertory Theater) staged an Urdu adaptation of yet another Arthur Miller classic All My Sons as Jo Chaley Tau Jaan Sae Guzar Gaye. The play is adapted in Urdu by a National Academy of Arts (NAPA) graduate Baber Jamal and directed by the TV and stage veteran Rahat Kazmi. The cast includes Talat Hussain, Nimra Bucha, Paras Masroor, Aiman Tariq, Nazarul Hassan, Adnan Jaffer, Samina Nazir and Hammad.

Unlike other Napa plays where there seemed to be a confusion about whether the play is a translation or an adaptation, this time around Napa got it right .The story of All My Sons revolves around Joe, who is exonerated after being charged of shipping damaged airplane cylinder heads out of his factory during World War II, inadvertently causing the deaths of 21 pilots. For three-and-a-half years he places the blame on his partner and former neighbour, Steve Deever. Jo Chalay Tau Jaan Sae Guzar Gaye centres around the family of a construction company owner Gul, who builds the Shangrilla Towers without getting their structural design approved. The building ends up collapsing in the earthquake, killing 75 people and lands his brother in jail.

Kudos to Napa for making the play socially relevant by working in the Margalla Towers collapse during the 2005 earthquake, thereby making the story more relatable for the audience.

As far as the performances are concerned, Talat Hussain lives up to the expectations of his fans as his rendition of each dialogue drove the audience in whatever direction he wanted to. Adnan Jaffer is a great find for Napa, from Oedipus Rex to All My Sons, this man has proven his skill in all kinds of characters, be it a central character or a supporting character, he delivers the needful. Paras Masroor is one of the gems that Napa has produced, who lives up to the expectations as he shares some phenomenal scenes with the legendary Talat Hussain. However, Nimra Bucha and Aiman Tariq started off with performances that were more exaggerated than required.  Bucha is given leverage keeping in mind the kind of role she had to play, but Tariq failed to live up to what ones expectations are from a seasoned theater actress. Nazarul Hassan, one feels,  is the most underrated actor from Napa and should be given meatier roles in future productions.

On the contrary, the set design and lighting was terrible. The lights weren’t placed according to the blocking of characters and, time and again, the audience had to seek out dark faces with no technical justification. The set could have been much better and keeping the overall depressing theme of the play, there was a lot of room for improvement in the set design.

The play was loosely directed — at a lot of places the dramatic crescendo didn’t develop at all and it seemed that the director had no control over the intensity of scenes. Some very strong dramatic moments between Bucha and Masroor opposite Talat Hussain were wasted.

All in all, Jo Chaley Tau Jaan Sae Guzar Gaye comes off as a rescue for NRT after back to back disappointing performances in Dil Ka Kiya Rung Karoon and Khel Jaari Hai. The play is definitely not for an audience seeking merely to be entertained. Rather, it is for the thinking audience. The play runs till April 19 at the Arts Council.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th,  2011.