Moving away from tradition

The Will was a beginning for slapstick comedy; the play was only average.

LAHORE:

Theatre in Lahore has taken an interesting twist as new talent tries to push new boundaries. Playing on ethnic and linguistic stereotypes, plays have tried to reinvent the wheel when it comes to stage comedy.

Al-Hamra Hall 2 had a full house for the opening night of The Will — a trilingual comedy directed by Umair Ashfaq. The play, which was filled with several great individual performances, failed to live up to its promise due to gaps in the script and the cliched characters.

The play was set in the living room of an eccentric Colonel who has passed away, leaving behind no living relatives. The Colonel’s will states that he has left everything to four families who have  influenced him over the years, but before they can inherit anything, the families have to stay in the Colonels haunted house for one day.

The opening scene features the Colonel’s lawyer Jeez Creeper (Nasir Malik) explaining to Maid Cynthia (Saba Awais) the circumstances of the Colonel’s will and how guests will arrive. Suddenly, Pashtun driver Shurli Khan enters the house dancing and prancing along, his character will be the centre of several stereotypical jokes — many of which were in bad taste.

In the past year, several local plays have tried to find humour in taboo topics such as homosexuality and transsexuals, but in this case, the entire idea seemed to be wrong. Ahmer Khalid, a student and active follower of the local theatre scene, said that a transition had taken place as many youth organised plays were focusing on slapstick comedy which had no script or plot. He said that this sort of humour was not common in plays, but he assumed that it had to do with the environment at school, which is predominantly used to such humour.

“It’s the style, nowadays people are pushing boundaries and hoping for better results,” said Khalid. “This is not a traditional theatre comedy, in fact; technically it’s probably less superior because of the lack of a script.”

It must be mentioned that the female performers were good, the Punjabi accents were authentic, but the storyline was disconnected and had too many subplots, which left the audience confused. The Will was a beginning for slapstick comedy, but it was disappointing in that despite having resources and talent; the play was only average.



Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2011.