Death of stage drama

Art will often offend some people’s sensibilities. That is just how art works. But unlike most controversial works of art, which push at the boundaries of cultural, religious and societal mores, even the most hardline free speech believer would admit that many of the theatre performances, especially dances, have no artistic merit — being vulgar is their sole reason for existence. The Punjab government has launched a much-needed crackdown on the obscene offerings of commercial theatre shows in Lahore and elsewhere after a spate of notices were issued to actors, directors and production houses in recent weeks over vulgar stage performances.

While seedy performances are well-known and a major draw at private venues, some of the high-profile recent incidents took place at government venues such as Alhamra Art Centre, which is overseen by Punjab Arts Council and Lahore Arts Council. Despite a requirement for all stage plays to get government approval, in practice, approval only requires a copy of a script, which is unlikely to mention details of what is going on during dance performances. This makes reviews much trickier, and is among the reasons that several prominent artists have called on the government to stop all commercial plays at state-owned venues, since these are the ones that are usually full of offensive content. There is also a push to take legal action against commercial venues over obscene performances.

Unfortunately, the best way to stop obscene content is to increase the availability of quality entertainment. The high ticket prices for low-budget, vulgar shows reflect that people are willing to spend to go watch plays. Lack of options just means they often end up watching garbage. While the government is admittedly cash-strapped, encouraging theatre artists to produce higher quality content is simply a matter of making existing facilities available — striking a balance between commercially viable and artistically meritorious is something many of our top artists have proven themselves to be skilled at.