Bertolt Brecht’s play staged at PNCA

Rain fails to deter people from watching classic German drama

A local team of artistes performed “Anokhi Baat Bhi Mumkin Hai”, an Urdu adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s play “The Exception and the Rule”, at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) on Monday late evening.

Translated by late Aslam Azhar in the 1980s, the original play was written in 1931 by the German playwright. Senior artiste Asif Shah directed Monday’s performance.

The play narrates the tale of a profit-seeking merchant who desires to cross the Yahi Desert. The merchant’s harsh treatment of his social inferiors shows the dark underbelly of human nature, particularly in the context of the capitalist system.  The play reflects societal biases through the inequities between the well-off merchant and his lower-class worker, in terms of both wealth and protection under the law.



The play brings to the forefront pressing questions about the relationship between economic inequality and the larger political or social system.

Despite heavy rain, a large audience turned up to watch the play including the family of late Aslam Azhar, Pakistan’s media icon and the translator of the play.

Featured in the play were Asif Shah, Imran Rushdi, Sobia Saleem, Seema Jatt, Raza Ahmed, Arshad Khan, Noorullah, Shahid Mughal, Karim Khan, Nadeem, Furqan Ahmed, and Waqas Wikki. Syed Akash Bokhari was the Production assistant. All the actors gave a satisfying performance with the right amount of expressions and enthusiasm.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2018.