LATZ all set to present classic Neil Simon play

The ‘zealots’ will perform The Good Doctor on September 22, 23 and 24

LAHORE: Lahore Amateur Theatre Zealots is all set to present its second play, The Good Doctor by Neil Simon, on September 22 ,23 and 24 on Alhamra Mall Road.

Directed by Tughral Turaab Ali and produced by Huma Zaman, the English play lasting one-and-a-half hours is a lighthearted social satire that hopes to leave the audience not only with laughs, but also something to think about.



According to the play’s Director, Tughral Turaab Ali, Neil Simon’s Good Doctor is essentially the story of a writer who is going through a writer’s block. As he continues to struggle to write these short stories, the characters come to life on stage and as soon as he stops, they disappear. The rest of the play is about eight short scenes which are completely independent of each other, but are all concoctions of his mind.

“The common theme in all of these scenes is that it is about life, little events that happen in every day to normal people and how they respond to it,” he stressed.

According to Tughral, the ‘zealots’ have tried to take a very minimalistic approach with simple sets that would be easy to connect with the audience with fewer distractions. “The  play focuses on pure storytelling,” he added

“We chose this script because it is not about some complex or grand events as the stories are rather regular ones that the audience can relate to”, He said.

He said that even though the play and its stories were written in late 19th century Russia, the relationships and dynamics depicted are very relatable to present day Pakistan.

Tughral said even though the play is a satire and some of the acts would make one laugh, others will make the audience think as well.

“I don't want to exhaust the audience. I just want them to go home with a smile and think about the play,” he added.



According to Tughral, who is a banker by day, theatre is his hobby and he has been acting since 1997. Speaking about the play, producer Huma Zaman said they decided to pick up a play that has several short plays within it.

With a new story every 15 minutes, we hope it will be more interesting for the audience since they have not seen something like this before.

According to Huma, they want to do more and more quality theatre through the LATZ  platform.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2017.